Masad José Damha
was born in and raised in
Managua,
Nicaragua and immigrated to
Canada in 1978.
He
attended
McGill
University, completing a
B.Sc. in Chemistry ('83) and then a Ph.D. ('87) in Organic Chemistry
there with Professor Kelvin K. Ogilvie.
His Ph.D. work focused on the synthesis and conformational
analysis of nucleic acids (RNA).
He
was awarded an NSERC PDF in 1987, but
declined the honor in favor of an Assistant Professorship at the University of Toronto’s
Erindale College (UTM).
In 1992, he returned to his Alma Mater, where as James McGill
Professor of Chemistry, he is working in the field of bio-organic
and bio-medicinal nucleic acid chemistry.
His research is bearing fruit in
the development of new therapeutic drugs based on protein and RNA
targeting. With his
students, he has authored more than 140 publications, and
filed/received several patents worldwide.
In 1999, Professor
Damha co-founded Anagenis, Inc. - a start up company with
proprietary antisense technologies. Anagenis was formed
to assess and develop arabinonucleic acids chemistry against several
biological targets, including cancer and a number of infectious
diseases. In 2005, Anagenis, Inc. was acquired by Topigen
Pharmaceuticals, Inc.,
a Montreal-based biotechnology company that has discovered
antisense compounds for the treatment of respiratory diseases
including asthma, chronic obstructive lung disease and allergic
rhinitis.
Prof. Damha
currently
serves in the Board of
both the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society, and the International
Society of Nucleosides, Nucleotides and Nucleic Acids.
Recently, he served as
Associate Vice-Principal (Research &
International Relations) at McGill (2010-2011), as Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of
Chemistry (McGill; 2000-2010),
as
Member and Chair of the
NSERC Grant Selection Committee (GSC24;
2007-2009), and as area Coordinator and
organizer of a number of conferences such as Pacifichem (2000, 2005,
2009, 2010), the CSC (Montreal, 2001 and 2011), and the ACS (2007-09).
He has also served in the Editorial Board of the journal
Bioconjugate Chemistry
(1999-2003), the Accreditation Committee of the CIC (1999-2001), the
Fellowship Committee of the CIC (2007-present), and several Award
Selection Committees of the Canadian Society for Chemistry.
Other honors include:
The John Charles Polanyi Chemistry Prize (Ministry of
Colleges and Universities, 1989), The IUPAC Award (Chemical
Institute of Canada, 1991), Ichikizaki Awards for Young Chemist
(1989-94), the Merck-Frosst Award for Therapeutic Research (CSC,
1999), the Fellowship of the Chemical Institute of Canada
(F.C.I.C.), the James McGill Professorship (McGill University,
2004-2011), the Bernard Belleau Award of the CSC (2007), the
Fessenden Professorship in Science Innovation (McGill University;
2010), and the David Thomson Award in Graduate Supervision and
Teaching (McGill University; 2010).
Masad J. Damha
James McGill Professor of Chemistry &
Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada
B.Sc. (McGill, 1983)
Ph.D. (McGill, 1988)
The John Charles Polanyi Chemistry Prize, 1989
IUPAC Award, 1991
Merck-Frosst Award for Therapeutic Research, 1999
Bernard Belleau Award, 2007
Fessenden Professorship in
Science Innovation, 2010
David Thomson Award in
Graduate Supervision & Teaching, 2010
