Brett Finlay has been selected as one of six new inductees into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. Canadian Medical Hall of Fame Laureates are individuals whose contributions to medicine and the health sciences have led to extraordinary improvements in human health. Their work may be a single meritorious contribution or a lifetime of superior accomplishments. Pioneers in their field, they are role models for Canadians and an inspiration to our youth to pursue careers in the health sciences.
This important recognition will be celebrated at a ceremony held in association with Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University on April 12, 2018 at the London Convention Centre in London, Ontario.
Citation (courtesy of the Canadian Medical hall of Fame)
Dr. Brett Finlay, Peter Wall Distinguished Professor at the Michael Smith Laboratories at the University of British Columbia, is extending our understanding of how microbes interact with humans in both health and disease, uncovering their role in asthma, malnutrition and enteric diseases, with implications for prevention, treatment and cure. His research in the field of cellular microbiology has led to human and animal vaccines and treatments for drug-resistant infections. Dr. Finlay is also known to a broader public as the co-author of the provocative best-seller, Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving Your Child from An Oversanitized World, which presents scientific evidence concerning possible dangers of excessive sanitation in childhood environments. This public application of his profound research into the mechanisms of microbes at the molecular level has revealed their positive contributions to human wellness in addition to their role in infectious disease. Researcher, author, teacher, lecturer, co-founder of companies devoted to microbiome modification of the immune system, Dr. is one of a small number of scientists advancing our fundamental knowledge of life processes while providing understandable guidance and advice to parents concerned with the care and well-being of children.