Gordon Keller, one of the world’s leading stem cell scientists, is coming home to Canada. He will lead University Health Network’s new McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine, which opens this afternoon at the MaRS Centre. Keller, named by New York Magazine in January as one of six doctors the city couldn’t afford to lose, will leave his post as professor of gene and cell medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and start full-time in Toronto in January.

Keller credits Canada’s less-restrictive stance on human embryonic stem cell research with helping him make his decision to move north. But he says it was the critical mass of world-class stem cell researchers working in world-class institutes that clinched the deal.

Keller is one of the brightest, most successful stem cell researchers in the world. He has been a mover and shaker in this field for years. He probably has the best track record in the world at developing different kinds of tissues from human embryonic stem cells, says Dr. Christopher Paige, vice president of research at the University Health Network. Keller was recruited to lead the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine, or MCRM, last winter and will bring his entire research program with him.

Keller is no stranger to Canada. A Saskatchewan native, Keller studied at the University of Saskatchewan and at the University of Alberta, coming to Toronto in 1973 for a post-doctoral fellowship at the Ontario Cancer Institute. He spent much of his research career in the United States, where he became best known for his seminal research in human embryonic stem cells.

Canada’s strong tradition in stem cell science is also an attraction. The era of modern stem cell research began in Toronto in the early 1960s with the work of James Till and Ernest McCulloch at the Ontario Cancer Institute, says Dick. The two are credited with proving the existence of stem cells.

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