Dr. Pieter Cullis, Co-Founder of Acuitas Therapeutics and a professor in the department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at UBC, has been announced as the recipient of the 2022 Bloom Burton Award.
Dr. Cullis led the development of lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery systems for molecular therapeutics at Acuitas Therapeutics. The result of a lifetime of dedicated research driven by scientific curiosity, LNP delivery systems are a critical technology that help to accelerate, among other life-saving therapies, mRNA vaccine development. From the day the global Covid-19 pandemic was declared by the World Health Organization to the creation of a 95% effective Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine less than a year later, LNP delivery systems changed the course of the pandemic for billions of people. Pieter Cullis’ discovery played a major role in combatting Covid-19 and continues to protect vaccine recipients around the world.
“We are honoured to recognize Pieter Cullis with the 2022 Bloom Burton Award,” said Jolyon Burton, President of Bloom Burton & Co. “Pieter’s determination to understand, formulate and commercialize lipid nanoparticles helped everyone beat back a global pandemic in record time, saving millions of lives, and also having a multitude of other, dramatic therapeutic impacts and advancements.”
Mr. Burton continued, “It is a privilege to celebrate world-changing Canadian innovation and the Bloom Burton Award does exactly that – recognizing excellence among industry colleagues to continue inspiring future achievements and greatness.”
Bestowed annually, the Bloom Burton Award honours an individual scientist, inventor, executive, entrepreneur, industry leader, or policy maker who made the greatest contribution to Canada’s innovative healthcare industry in the previous year. Nominees were accepted from any of the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostic/imaging, research instrumentation, consumer health, services or healthcare IT sectors, and equal consideration was given to contributions across any stage of development – from discovery to commercial-end markets.
The Bloom Burton Award finalists and winner were chosen by an esteemed panel of judges, all of whom are respected international leaders in healthcare investment, entrepreneurship and journalism.
Dr. Cullis was celebrated at the 2022 Bloom Burton Award Gala at the Four Seasons Hotel Toronto on September 29, 2022 alongside the other finalists, each of whom also received a $25,000 cash prize.
In addition to the 2022 Bloom Burton Award, Dr. Cullis as been honoured with a number of prestigious awards and prizes for his contributions to the development of COVID-19 messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines. Click Here for a highlight of his 2021-2022 Awards thus far.
Click Here for Bloom Burton’s full announcement.