| Authorised form of name | McCulloch; Ernest Armstrong (1926 - 2011) |
| Dates | 1926 - 2011 |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Date of birth | 27/04/1926 |
| Date of death | 20/01/2011 |
| Activity | Education:
Upper Canada College; University of Toronto
Career:
Ernest McCulloch received his MD in 1948 from the University of Toronto. Upon graduation, he began his education in research at the Lister Institute in London, England.
In 1957 he joined the newly formed Ontario Cancer Institute where the majority of his research focused on normal blood-formation and leukemia. Together with his colleague, Dr. J.E. Till, McCulloch created the first quantitative, clonal method to identify stem cells and used this technique for pioneering studies on stem cells. His experience in hematology, when combined with Till's experience in biophysics, yielded a novel and productive combination of skills and interests.
In the early 1960s, McCulloch and Till started a series of experiments that involved injecting bone marrow cells into irradiated mice. Visible nodules were observed in the spleens of the mice, in proportion to the number of bone marrow cells injected. Till and McCulloch called the nodules 'spleen colonies', and speculated that each nodule arose from a single marrow cell: perhaps a stem cell.
In later work, Till and McCulloch were joined by graduate student Andy Becker, and demonstrated that each nodule did indeed arise from a single cell. They published their results in Nature in 1963. In the same year, in collaboration with Lou Siminovitch, a trailblazing Canadian molecular biologist, they obtained evidence that these cells were capable of self-renewal, a crucial aspect of the functional definition of stem cells that they had formulated.
A major focus of McCulloch's more recent research has been on cellular and molecular mechanisms affecting the growth of malignant blast stem cells obtained from the blood of patients with Acute Myeloblastic Leukemia.
In 1974, McCulloch became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 1988, he became an Officer of the Order of Canada and was made a member of the Order of Ontario in 2006. In 1999, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. In 2004 McCulloch was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. He holds the distinguished title of University Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto.
McCulloch's work revolutionized cell biology and cancer therapy with the discovery of stem cells in the hematopoietic system.
Their seminal research has been touted as the incipient event that led to revolutionary therapy and survival of leukemia patients worldwide.
Professor Emeritus, Ontario Cancer Institute, Toronto, Canada; 2005 Mary and Albert Lasker Foundation Award for Basic Medical Research Award for discovery of the first stem cell with James Till |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 13/05/1999 |
| Age at election | 73 |
| Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/104202179 |
| Code | NA2357 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| EC/1999/21 | McCulloch, Ernest Armstrong: certificate of election to the Royal Society | 1997 |
| IM/002864 | McCulloch, Ernest Armstrong | 1999 |