Officer of the Order of Canada
Awarded on: 2016-05-12
Invested on: 2017-08-25
With creativity and ingenuity, Philippe Gros has developed genetic approaches to
combatting disease. A professor of biochemistry and the vice-dean of life sciences at
McGill University, he is internationally celebrated for his innovative studies of genetic
mutations, a body of work that has inspired the design of treatments for a number of
complex diseases. Notably, he has uncovered genes that control neural tube defects,
revealed how infectious agents such as malaria and tuberculosis thrive in humans, and
identified genetic pathways that can be targeted to prevent infection.