Brenda Andrews Recognized by Canadian Society for Molecular Biology
Canadian Society for Molecular Biology has announced that Dr. Brenda Andrews is this year's recipient of Jeanne Manery Fisher Memorial Award and will present the keynote lecure at the Society's Annual Meeting to be held in Ottawa later this month.
Dr. Brenda Andrews is the Charles H. Best Chair of Medical Research, Director of the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research and Professor of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto. Dr. Andrews completed her PhD in Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto, and postdoctoral training in genetics at the University of California San Francisco. In 1991, Dr. Andrews was recruited to the Department of Medical Genetics (now Molecular Genetics) at the University of Toronto. She became Chair of the Department in 1999, a position she held for 5 years before assuming a position as Chair of the Banting & Best Department of Medical Research and as the inaugural Director of the Donnelly Centre.
Dr. Andrews has been on the forefront of establishing the field of systems biology. Her research is consistently published in top-tier journals such as Science, Cell and Nature. She has trained over 70 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and was recognized for her mentorship by being awarded the inaugural JJ Berry Smith Doctoral Supervision Award from the University of Toronto, School of Graduate Studies in 2013. Importantly, as she has encouraged many generations of women to pursue careers in academia, in 2007 she was awarded the Women in Science and Engineering University of Toronto Chapter “Breaking the Glass Ceiling” Award.
As a global leader in the field of systems biology, Dr. Andrews sits on many review panels, editorial and advisory boards and is the founding editor-in-chief of the journal Genes|Genomes|Genetics, an open access journal of the Genetics Society of America. Dr. Andrews is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (2005), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2011) and the American Academy of Microbiology (2012). She was the inaugural Director of the Genetic Networks Program of the CIFAR, and remains a Senior Fellow. In 2016, Dr. Andrews was named a Companion of the Order of Canada for her “globally significant research in systems biology and for developing and nurturing prominent scientific communities in molecular genetics”.
Dr. Andrews’ research has made pivotal insights into the molecular mechanism regulating cell cycle progression and the development of yeast functional genomics approaches. Her current research interests include analysis of genetic interaction networks in budding yeast and mammalian cells, using high through-put genetics platforms that include high content microscopy for systematic analysis of cell biological phenotypes.
The award was established in honour of the late Jeanne Manery Fisher, Professor of Biochemistry, University of Toronto, to recognize an eminent woman selected by the Society every second year for her scientific accomplishments. Dr. Fisher was not only an outstanding biochemist, but a remarkable teacher. She was instrumental in creating the Society's Equal Opportunity Committee and fought diligently for the position of women in science.
This story first appeared on the website of Canadian Society for Molecular Biology.