Tak Wah Mak

Tak Wah Mak, (; born October 4, 1946, in China) is a Canadian medical researcher, geneticist, oncologist, and biochemist. He first became widely known for his discovery of the T-cell receptor in 1983 and pioneering work in the genetics of immunology. In 1995, Mak published a landmark paper on the discovery of the function of the immune checkpoint protein CTLA-4, thus opening the path for immunotherapy/checkpoint inhibitors as a means of cancer treatment. Mak is also the founder of Agios Pharmaceuticals, whose lead compound, IDHIFA®, was approved by the FDA for acute myeloid leukemia in August 2017, becoming the first drug specifically targeting cancer metabolism to be used for cancer treatment. He has worked in a variety of areas including biochemistry, immunology, and cancer genetics.

Early life Born in southern China in 1946 to parents who were silk merchants, and raised in Hong Kong, Tak Wah Mak's parents encouraged him to become a doctor, but his interests lay elsewhere—in math, biology, and chemistry. Mak and his family moved to the United States of America during the mid-1960s and with the choice of going to the University of California or Wisconsin, he was persuaded by his mother to attend Wisconsin to avoid the antiwar activities at California. His interest in life and chemistry led him to eventually studying biochemistry and biophysics at the University of Wisconsin.

University life At the University of Wisconsin, Mak met virologist Roland Rueckert. In 1984, Mak discovered the T-cell receptor, with Mark M. Davis identifying the receptor in mouse. This work on the cloning of T-cell receptor genes, , has been cited nearly 1200 times. In spite of offers from prestigious institutions around the world, Mak remained committed to Canada's scientific community.

In 1993, Mak received support from the world's largest independent biotech company, Amgen, to establish the Amgen Research Institute in Toronto. Financial support from Amgen resulted in his lab pioneering the use of knockout mice, and as a result his lab generated one of the first knockout mice and has generated more knockout mice than any other lab in the world. Mak's role in advancing the use of genetically altered mice in scientific study has led to important breakthroughs in immunology and understanding cancer at the cellular level. As of 2005, Amgen-produced papers have been cited more than 40,000 times. The basic research in cancer conducted by Mak has been published in top international scientific journals and he has given several keynote addresses at cancer symposia across Canada and the United States. By 1995, Mak had reached a high point in his career, when he and his team published their seminal findings on the function of CTLA-4, Since 1984, he has been a Professor in the Departments of Medical Biophysics and Immunology at the University of Toronto.

From the early 2000s, Mak concentrated his efforts on the emerging field of cancer metabolism. Mak, Lewis C. Cantley, and Craig B. Thompson together founded Agios Pharmaceuticals, a biotech pharmaceutical company whose sole purpose is to discover methods of targeting cancer metabolism. The trio have contributed immensely in a few years to what was originally a forgotten paradigm. The discovery of the involvement of particular enzymes such as PKM2, mutated IDH as well as novel oncometabolites such as 2-hydroxyglutarate in cancer development have once again brought cancer metabolism back to the forefront of cancer biology. On 1 August 2017 Agios announced that the FDA had approved their lead compound, IDHIFA®, for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. 1986, elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada 1988, awarded the Emil von Behring Prize 1989, awarded the Gairdner Foundation International Award 1990, awarded the Royal Society of Canada's McLaughlin Medal 1994, made a Fellow of the Royal Society 1995, awarded the King Faisal Prize for Medicine 1996, awarded the Robert L. Noble Prize by the National Cancer Institute of Canada 1996, awarded the Sloan Prize of the General Motors Cancer Foundation 2000, made an Officer of the Order of Canada 2002, elected as a foreign associate to the National Academy of Sciences in the discipline of immunology 2003, awarded the Killam Prize by the Canada Council for the Arts. 2004, awarded the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize 2005, elected as an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 2007, awarded the Order of Ontario. 2009, introduced to the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. 2015, award the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards. 2021, awarded the Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research 2023 awarded the Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award for Extraordinary Achievement in Cancer Research.

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