CSMB New Investigator award
The CSMB New Investigator Award recognizes meritorious research in one or more of the fields of biochemistry, molecular or cellular biology in Canada. Recipients have ten years or less of independent research experience, and demonstrate outstanding research accomplishments.
2025 Winner: Heather McFarlane, PhD
Dr. Heather E. McFarlane is an Assistant Professor and Canada Research Chair in Plant Cell Biology in the Department of Cell & Systems Biology at the University of Toronto. The McFarlane Lab studies plant cell wall synthesis, secretion, signaling, and remodeling since cell walls provide us with renewable biomass for food, materials, and energy. Attempts to modify plant cell walls for improved materials or biofuels have exposed a critical gap in our understanding: plants perceive cell wall status via largely unknown mechanisms, called âcell wall signalingâ and typical plant responses cause yield penalties that render these cell wall âimprovementsâ agriculturally/economically unviable. The goal of Dr. McFarlaneâs research is to discover how plants sense and respond to cell wall changes, to allow cell wall engineering for innovative products that advance sustainability.
Dr. McFarlane earned her PhD at the University of British Columbia (Canada) where she studied the transport of lipids that form the protective plant cuticle. After her PhD, she joined the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology (Germany) to study cell wall synthesis as an EMBO postdoctoral fellow. She then moved to University of Melbourne (Australia) where she was awarded an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award to initiate her work on cell wall signaling. Dr. McFarlane joined the Department of Cell and Systems Biology at the University of Toronto July 2019. Since then, Dr. McFarlane has established an innovative and inclusive research and training environment. She and her trainees have made important discoveries about the mechanisms of cell wall synthesis and signaling, and her work has been recognized by a Canada Research Chair and an Ontario Early Researcher Award, among others. Most recently, the McFarlane lab has identified dozens of new molecular components of cell wall signaling and provided mechanistic insights into why some cell wall modifications are tolerated by plants while other changes can cause dramatic growth and developmental phenotypes.
Website: https://mcfarlane.csb.utoronto.ca/
Canadian Science Publishing Senior Investigator award
This award recognizes a record of outstanding achievement in research in one or more of the fields of biochemistry, molecular or cellular biology, undertaken in Canada by a Canadian scientist.
2025 Winner: Aaron Schimmer, MD, PhD, FRCPC
Dr. Schimmer graduated from medical school at the University of Toronto and completed specialty and subspecialty training in internal medicine in and hematology. He subsequently pursued research training and received his PhD in Molecular Biology in followed by post-doctoral training at the Burnham Institute in San Diego, California,
Dr. Schimmer is the Director of Research, a Senior Scientist and a Staff Physician at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network. Dr. Schimmer is also a Professor in the departments of Medicine, Medical Biophysics, and Institute of Medical Sciences at the University of Toronto. He is a Past President of the Canadian Hematology Society.
Dr. Schimmerâs clinical practice is focused on treating patients with acute leukemia and related disorders. His laboratory research focuses on developing new therapeutic strategies for leukemia by targeting dysregulated mitochondrial pathways in leukemia stem cells. Dr. Schimmer is the author of over 300 publications and is an inventor on over 20 patent applications. He has been elected to the Royal Society of Canada, American Society of Clinical Investigation, and Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and was named Scholar in Clinical Research by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Jeanne Manery-Fisher Memorial award
This award is given in honour of the late Jeanne Manery Fisher, Professor of Biochemistry, University of Toronto. Dr. Fisher was not only an outstanding biochemist, but a remarkable teacher. She was instrumental in creating the Societyâs Equal Opportunity Committee and fought diligently for the position of women in science. This award recognizes an eminent Canadian woman scientist who has a distinguished career in the fields of biochemistry, molecular or cellular biology or genetics, resulting from her outstanding contributions to research, teaching or society.
2025 Winner: P. Lynne Howell, PhD
Senior Scientist, Program in Molecular Medicine
The Hospital for Sick Children
Professor, Department of Biochemistry
University of Toronto
Dr. P. Lynne Howell is a Senior Scientist in the Program in Molecular Medicine at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Toronto. Dr. Howellâs research interests are focused on understanding at the molecular and cellular level how exopolysaccharides â a major component of the biofilm matrix â are synthesized, chemically modified and exported from the cell. This research has led to the identification of several glycoside hydrolases that are capable of both preventing biofilm formation and degrading pre-existing biofilms. These enzyme biologics have the potential to treat a wide range of chronic infections.
Dr. Howell obtained an undergraduate degree in Biophysics from the University of Leeds in 1983 and her Ph.D. from the University of London in 1986 in the laboratory of Dame Julia Goodfellow. She spent three years as a postdoctoral fellow with Professor Gregory Petsko at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston before moving to Paris for two years to study with Dr. Roberto Poljak and Dr. Andre Menez at the Institute Pasteur. She joined The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in late 1991 and was cross-appointed to the University of Toronto shortly afterwards. Dr. Howell held a Teir I Canada Research Chair in Structural Biology from 2006-2020 and is a former recipient of a CIHR Investigator Award. She was Head of the Program in Molecular Medicine (formerly Molecular Structure and Function) at SickKids from 2002-2014 and Associate Chief, Research Integration and Communication 2014-2016. She was a member of the Board of Directors of Canadian Light Source 2014-2023 and GlycoNET 2018-2020.
