John Dick (scientist)

Dr. John E. Dick PhD FRSC (born 1957) is an award-winning Canadian scientist, credited with first identifying cancer stem cells in certain types of human leukemia. His revolutionary findings highlighted the importance of understanding that not all cancer cells are the same and thus spawned a new direction in cancer research.

Dick is also known for his demonstration of a blood stem cell's ability to replenish the blood system of a mouse, his development of a technique to enable an immune-deficient mouse to carry and produce human blood, and his creation of the world's first mouse with human leukemia.

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Early Life

Dick was raised on a Mennonite farm in southern Manitoba. His early education was gained in a one-room schoolhouse. Later he moved to Winnipeg to study to become an X-ray technician. There he noticed one of his roommates was attending university and studying biology. Dick realized he was more interested in biology and decided to switch pursuits.

Career

Dick started off at the University of Manitoba specializing in microbiology.

In 1984, he moved to Toronto. In order to support his wife and two children, Dick worked part time at an X-ray lab while he finished his post-doctorate work in Dr. Alan Bernstein’s lab. Dr. Bernstein, a noted cancer researcher whose Ph.D. advisor was James Till at the Ontario Cancer Institute, guided Dick to research cancers of the blood.

Over the next five years, Dick developed an in vivo repopulation assay using the NOD/SCID mouse. This technique of using an immune-deficient mouse to generate human hematopoietic cells won Dick international recognition.

In 1994, Nature published his paper which described how cancer stem cells grow slowly. Dr. Dick explained, "Most kinds of chemotherapy are designed to kill fast-growing cancer cells. This is why leukemia can come back after treatment. To get rid of the cancer, you have to find ways of eliminating the stem cells." Many researchers dismissed Dick's discovery as interesting, but something not likely to apply to solid tumours.

In 1997, Dick reported the detection of cancer stem cells at the root of three other forms of leukemia. This time he presented it as the "cancer stem-cell hypothesis". His model stated that there are different cancer cells and amongst them there is a pecking order in which the abnormal stem cell, is both the key to forming and feeding a cancer. Therefore without an abnormal stem cell, cancers will not grow. This time his report was considered a breakthrough.

As of 2006, Dick is a Senior Scientist in the Division of Cellular & Molecular Biology of the Toronto General Research Institute, and founding member of Canada's Stem Cell Network.

Honours

• 1997, awarded the Michael Smith Prize by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research
• 2000, awarded the Robert L. Noble Prize for Excellence in Cancer Research by the National Cancer Institute of Canada
• 2002, awarded the Herman Boerhaave Medal by the Leiden University, Netherlands
• 2004, made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Academy of Sciences
• 2005, awarded the William Dameshek Prize by the American Society of Hematology
• 2007, awarded a Premier's Summit Award in Medical Research, Province of Ontario

References

• Governor Schwarzenegger Highlights California-Canada Partnership on Life-saving Stem Cell Research. Press Release, May 30, 2007
• Canadian researchers 'create' leukemia stem cell, watch disease unfold. CBC News, April 26, 2007.
• Meet the A-Team of stem-cell science. Retrieved from The Globe and Mail on November 27, 2006.
• Stem Cells May Be Key to Cancer. Retrieved from The New York Times on November 27, 2006.
• "Black Box" of Cancer Breaks Open. Retrieved from American Society of Hematology website on November 27, 2006.
• New Research Breakthroughs at UHN January 2003. Retrieved from University Hospital Network website on November 27, 2006.