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Professor Charlie Boone, interim director of the Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research, is the recipient of the first Banting & Best Distinguished Scholar award which recognizes top researchers at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine whose discoveries are changing lives.

The award was established to support outstanding researchers who have completed terms as Tier 1 Canada Research Chair, a prestigious appointment by the federal government reserved for scientists and scholars who are world-leading in their fields. It comes as the University of Toronto – a groundbreaking discovery that launched the Banting & Best Department of Medical Research, forerunner of the Donnelly Centre.

Boone was named Canada Research Chair in Proteomics, Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics in 2007 and held the appointment for the maximum two seven-year terms. Globally renowned for his research on genetic networks, he has made pioneering contributions to understanding the genotype to phenotype relationship, which seeks to explain how genes encode the traits of an organism. With his long-term collaborator Brenda Andrews, University Professor and inaugural director of the Donnelly Centre, Boone has established an automated high-throughput platform for measuring how genetic mutations and drug compounds affect cellular fitness. This research has opened the door to a new way of understanding how genes contribute to disease, with a potential for developing finely-tuned therapies.