Inside the 2026 Laureate Lectures at Gairdner Science Week

On October 21, the annual Gairdner Laureate Lectures drew a full audience to the MaRS Discovery District Auditorium for Gairdner Science Week, where all nine 2026 Canada Gairdner Award laureates presented their groundbreaking research in biomedical science.

View the full event album here.

Aaron Phillips opened the program with a look at how neural pathways can be harnessed to address cardiovascular paralysis, followed by Karen Maxwell, who explored the remarkable immune defence systems found in bacteria.

Turning to global health, Jan Holmgren and John Clemens traced the development of oral cholera vaccines, from early scientific concepts to their real-world impact on public health.

The program then shifted to structural biology, with Wolfgang Baumeister demonstrating the power of cryo-electron tomography to reveal the complex architecture of cells and biological systems.

In proteomics, John Yates shared insights from his pioneering work using mass spectrometry to advance protein chemistry. Ruedi Aebersold explored the proteome as a complex adaptive system, while Matthias Mann reflected on three decades of advances in mass spectrometry-based proteomics and its contributions to biomedical research.

Closing the program, Jeffery Kelly discussed the scientific discoveries that led to the development of the first drug to treat a human amyloid disease, highlighting the journey from fundamental research to clinical application.