Sculpture Saturday

Sculpture Saturday

A few years ago I happened upon this sculpture outside the MaRS building.

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As I research this I realize I need to make another visit!

Anyway, back to the sculpture.

 Of course, it's an Abernethy, click on Abernethy in the tags/labels below this post to see more of her work. She has done many famous Canadians.

Drs. James Till and Ernest McCulloch, the pioneers of stem cell science, have been honoured for their achievements with a sculpture located outside of the MaRS building in Toronto. The art piece, by Ontario sculptor Ruth Abernethy, was unveiled September 2017 during the grand opening of the Centre for Advanced Therapeutic Cell Technologies.

The sculpture serves as a reminder of a great Canadian innovation that happened here in Toronto about 60 years ago. Till, a Biophysicist, and McCulloch, a Haematologist, worked at the Ontario Cancer Institute, the research arm of Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. They were studying radiation sensitivity on mice when they stumbled upon their discovery of the stem cell which led to multiple further discoveries in medicine such as bone marrow transplantation, and the discovery of cancer stem cells. To honour their achievement, Till and McCulloch were inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 2004, became Officers of the Order of Canada, and earned multiple awards for their work.

There is a duplicate sculpture in Vancouver BC.