Dr. Pieter Cullis, a professor in the department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, has been honoured with a number of prestigious awards and prizes for his contributions to the development of COVID-19 messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines. Below is a collection of his achievements, prizes and awards.
The 2022 Bloom Burton Award
The Bloom Burton Award honours an individual scientist, inventor, executive, entrepreneur, industry leader, or policy maker who made the greatest contribution to Canada’s innovative healthcare industry in the previous year. Nominees were accepted from any of the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostic/imaging, research instrumentation, consumer health, services or healthcare IT sectors, and equal consideration was given to contributions across any stage of development – from discovery to commercial-end markets.
Read the full announcement in the Bloom Burton & Co. Website.
WATCH: Dr. Cullis discusses how LNPs ended up accelerating mRNA vaccine development against COVID19 in this video from Bloom Burton.
Life Sciences BC Global Impact Award 2022
LSBC awards recognize the achievements of individuals, companies, and organizations that have had success in advancing successful health innovations and contribute to BC’s life sciences ecosystem.
Read the full article in the LSI Website and full details about this award in the Life Sciences BC Website.
2022 Tang Prize
Dr. Pieter Cullis has been awarded the 2022 Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science for his work developing the lipid nanoparticle technology that enabled mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines.
The Tang Prize recognizes biomedical research that has led to significant advances in human health by helping prevent, diagnose or treat major diseases. Winners are selected by a committee of internationally-renowned experts and several past recipients have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize.
Read the full article in the Faculty of Medicine Website.
2022 Canada Gairdner Award laureate
In April 2022, Dr. Cullis named a 2022 Canada Gairdner International Award laureate, alongside Dr. Katalin Karikó, senior vice president of RNA Protein Replacement Therapies at BioNTech SE and a professor at the University of Szeged and Dr. Drew Weissman, director of the Penn Institute for RNA Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania.
The Gairdner Awards annually recognize scientists whose discoveries have had a major impact on biomedical and global health research. The highly prized accolade is known to foreshadow further recognition: Many Gairdner laureates have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize.
Read the full article here.
Gairdner Awards 2022 Announcement
2022 Governor General’s Innovation Award
Lipid Nanoparticle Team, Dr. Pieter Cullis, Dr. Michael Hope, and Dr. Thomas Madden received 2022 Governor General’s Innovation Award in April 2022. The objectives of the Governor General’s Innovation Awards are to celebrate excellence in innovation across all sectors of Canadian society and inspire Canadians, particularly Canadian youth, to be entrepreneurial innovators.
Read the full article in the LSI website.
Governor General Innovation Awards website
2021 Prince Mahidol Award
Dr. Cullis, together with his peers Drs Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman, was awarded with the 2021 Prince Mahidol Award in November 2021. The annual Prince Mahidol Award recognizes outstanding achievements in medicine and public health worldwide. The award is conferred by the Prince Mahidol Award Foundation, founded by the Thai Royal Family in 1992. The 2021 awardees were selected out of a pool of 86 nominations from 35 countries.
Read about the 2021 Prince Mahidol Award in NMIN Nano News.
Watch the news in NBT WORLD and Prince Mahidol Award Channel.
Camurus Lipid Science Prize
Dr. Cullis and Dr. Katalin Karikó (University of Pennsylvania, BioNTech) were awarded the 2021 and 2022 Lipid Science Prize on April 4 by the independent research foundation Camurus Lipid Research Foundation at a symposium and prize ceremony in Lund, Sweden.
Read about the 2021 and 2022 Lipid Science Prize in the LSI website.
Appointment as an Officer to the Order of Canada
In December 2021, Dr. Cullis was named among the new Officers, in recognition of his contributions to the advancement of biomedical research and drug development, and for his mentorship of the next generation of scientists and entrepreneurs.
Read the full article in the LSI website.
Link to the official announcement from the the Governor General of Canada
Read more articles & watch interviews featuring Dr. Cullis:
- Research2Reality, November 2022
- Prince Mahidol Award Conference, January 2022
- Prince Mahidol Award Conference (Group Interview) January 2022
- The Globe and Mail, November 2021
- Nature online, September 2021
- UBC’s Beyond, June 2021
- CBC Radio, June 2021
- UBC News, April 2021