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Josef Penninger

Immunologist

With the help of his “knockout mice,” Josef Penninger is making groundbreaking discoveries that may offer remedies for everything from colorectal cancer to heart disease. The lead researcher of a team of Canadian scientists has recently discovered the “Holy Grail” of the cellular signaling system, which the human body uses to control its immune system. Experts predict this finding could one day halt the development of cancer, diabetes, arthritis and heart disease.

Colleagues have praised him for his “wide” brain, innovation, creativity and risk taking, and his leading edge research career has been marked by his publication of over 125 scientific articles. Penninger was born and raised in Gurten, Austria, and completed his undergraduate and doctoral degrees at the University of Innsbruck before moving to Toronto in 1990 to do postdoctoral work with leading immunologist Tak Mak.

He is an immunologist at the Amgen Institute, a private research facility, and the Ontario Cancer Institute, a research Centre at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. He is also a professor of immunology and medical biophysics at the University of Toronto.