[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Poinar_Hendrik3.jpg” caption=”Hendrik Poinar, Christopher Wynder and Sheila Singh are McMaster’s newest Canada Research Chairs. File photos.”]McMaster's newly minted Canada Research Chairs are three young researchers who weren't even born when their respective fields were first explored by pioneering scientists during the 1960s.

Today, their areas of research are the subject of headlines and the focus of scientists the world over — a reflection of the potential and promise of the fields of paleogenetics and human stem cell biology.

Hendrik Poinar, Sheila Singh and Christopher Wynder share the same passion for unlocking the genetic mysteries of disease, but each views this research challenge through significantly different lenses.

Hendrik Poinar sees through the lens of a molecular evolutionary geneticist, using ancient DNA to answer questions about evolution and environments from samples that can be several million years old.

An associate professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, Poinar is now a Canada Research Chair in Paleogenetics. The science of paleogenetics — a term first coined by Nobel laureate Linus Pauling in 1963 — applies genetics to paleontology.

Poinar has established a world-class molecular anthropology lab that is devising novel techniques to extract information from ancient DNA. His work sequencing the genome of the woolly mammoth represents just one aspect of the research he does with his team in the McMaster Ancient DNA Centre.

Poinar is also focused on determining the timing and origin of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) from some of the oldest samples of archival HIV collected between 1959 and 1980. In addition, Poinar's research program aims to better understand the evolution of pandemic infections to help track the spread of future infectious diseases and aid in developing the appropriate vaccines.

While Poinar's research involves using DNA to unlock the mysteries of the past and better understand how to combat infectious diseases of the future, Christopher Wynder and Sheila Singh seek to unlock the mystery of the stem cells at the root of cancer — a disease that is one of the leading causes of death in the world.

Canadian scientists first proved the existence of stem cells in 1961 and since then, significant research in the field has identified the importance of human embryonic stem cells and their role in producing the starting material for every organ and tissue in our body.

Stem cells have the ability to continuously reproduce themselves and one of the challenges for Wynder and Singh — both scientists in the McMaster Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute (SCCRI) — is to determine why some stem cells multiply normally while others give rise to cancer.

As Canada Research Chair in Epigenetic Control of Stem Cells, Wynder's research involves determining the interplay of different factors within stem cells that affect the decision on whether to multiply. Knowing how a stem cell first mutates into a cancerous cell may lead to the ability to better assess what factors lead to the development of cancerous tumours.

Wynder, an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, will study the protein known as histone demethylases to determine what role it plays in telling a stem cell to multiply or differentiate.

Sheila Singh's Canada Research Chair in Human Cancer Stem Cell Biology provides the pediatric neurosurgeon further opportunity to combine her work as a surgeon with her work as a research scientist to discover more about the formation of brain tumours — the leading cause of cancer mortality in children.

Singh, an assistant professor in the Department of Surgery, neurosurgery division, has discovered an abnormal stem cell — the brain tumour initiating cell (BTIC) — that may drive the formation of brain tumours. These BTICs are rare and represent only a small fraction of the whole tumour, but these cells alone may be entirely responsible for the continued growth of the tumour.

By isolating this rare tumour stem cell and exploring the concept that not every cell in a brain tumour is capable of fueling a tumour's growth, Singh and her team will be on the leading edge of the research that will aid in predicting the patient's survival rate. Singh's work will also lead to the development of therapies to target the cells that initiate the brain tumour.

Mo Elbestawi, vice-president, research and international affairs, notes that it is particularly satisfying to have the opportunity to offer Tier 2 Canada Research Chairs to each of these three researchers.

“Tier 2 Chairs are offered to 'exceptional emerging researchers' and certainly, it's clear that all three have established themselves as a key force in their respective research field, poised for even greater success,” says Elbestawi. “McMaster recognized the promise of Hendrik Poinar and was fortunate to recruit him in 2003 and now, keep him here to continue his landmark research. Our world-class Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute and the Chairs program drew Christopher Wynder and Sheila Singh to further advance the Institute's pioneering science. We're going to be seeing great things from these three — our University is fortunate to have these 'bright lights' on board.”

There are two types of Canada Research Chairs:

Tier 1 Chairs, tenable for seven years and renewable, are for outstanding researchers acknowledged by their peers as world leaders in their fields. For each Tier 1 Chair, the university receives $200,000 annually for seven years.

Tier 2 Chairs, tenable for five years and renewable once, are for exceptional emerging researchers, acknowledged by their peers as having the potential to lead in their field. For each Tier 2 Chair, the university receives $100,000 annually for five years.

The following researchers had their Tier 1 Canada Research Chairs renewed:

“As demonstrated in Mobilizing Science and Technology to Canada's Advantage, the Government of Canada is committed to improving Canada's international reputation for research excellence,” said the Honourable Jim Prentice, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for the Canada Research Chairs Program. “By investing in the Canada Research Chairs Program, we are helping universities recruit and retain the most brilliant and promising researchers, and contributing to enable these institutions to become leaders in the fields of advanced science and technology.”