Madden, Kenneth

Madden, Kenneth

Kenneth Madden, MD, MSc

Dr. Ken Madden is a Professor of Medicine and holds the Allan M. McGavin Chair in Geriatric Medicine at the University of British Columbia. He is the President of the Canadian Geriatrics Society and the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Geriatrics Journal. His lab has examined the effect of exercise interventions in older adults with Type 2 diabetes, the ability of different forms of exercise to impact arterial stiffness in subjects at high cardio-metabolic risk, and the impact of sedentary behaviours on cardio-metabolic risk factors.   He has also examined the impact of age and diabetes on postprandial cardiovascular responses and orthostatic intolerance.  He is division head of Geriatric Medicine at Vancouver General Hospital, and holds peer-reviewed grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, and the Canadian Diabetes Association.  He is chair of the North American Regional Committee for the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics.

Email: kenneth.madden@ubc.ca

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Finlay, Brett

Brett Finlay, PhD

Dr. B. Brett Finlay is a Professor in the Michael Smith Laboratories, and the Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Microbiology and Immunology at the University of British Columbia.  He obtained a B.Sc. (Honors) in Biochemistry at the University of Alberta, where he also did his Ph.D. (1986) in Biochemistry under Dr. William Paranchych, studying F-like plasmid conjugation. His post-doctoral studies were performed with Dr. Stanley Falkow at the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he studied Salmonella invasion into host cells.  In 1989, he joined UBC as an Assistant Professor in the Biotechnology Laboratory. 

Dr. Finlay’s research interests are focused on host-microbe interactions, at the molecular level.  By combining cell biology with microbiology, he has been at the forefront of the field called Cellular Microbiology, making several fundamental discoveries in this area, and publishing over 543 papers (h index=142).  His laboratory studies several pathogenic bacteria, including Salmonella and pathogenic E. coli, and more recently microbiota. His group is also interested in the role of the microbiome in chronic diseases, including those that become more common with age such as Parkinson’s Disease.  He is well recognized internationally for his work, and has won several prestigious awards including the E.W.R. Steacie Prize, the CSM Fisher Scientific Award, CSM Roche Award, a MRC Scientist, five Howard Hughes International Research Scholar Awards, a CIHR Distinguished Investigator, BC Biotech Innovation Award, the Michael Smith Health Research Prize, the IDSA Squibb award, the Jacob Biely Prize, the prestigious Canadian Killam Health Sciences Prize, the Flavelle Medal of the Royal Society, the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the Prix Galien, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, is a Member of the German National Academy of Sciences, the European Union Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Microbiology, Chair d’État, Collège de France and is the UBC Peter Wall Distinguished Professor.  He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and Order of British Columbia, and inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.  He is a cofounder of Inimex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Microbiome Insights, scientific cofounder of Vedanta Pharmaceuticals and CommenSe, Director of the SARS Accelerated Vaccine Initiative, and Founding Director and Senior Fellow of CIFAR’s Microbes and Humans.  He is also the co-author of the books Let Them Eat Dirt and The Whole Body Microbiome.

Email: bfinlay@msl.ubc.ca

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Appel-Cresswell, Silke

Silke Appel-Cresswell, MD

Dr. Silke Appel-Cresswell is a movement disorder neurologist, trained in Germany, London (UK) and Vancouver, BC. She is an Associate Professor (grant tenure) for Medicine/Neurology at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and holds the Marg Meikle Professorship for Research in Parkinson’s disease. Her research focusses on the role of the microbiome in Parkinson’s disease and other brain disorders, care delivery in Parkinson’s as well as coping strategies, resilience and neuropsychiatric features of Parkinson’s. She has established iCAPTURE PD, a large registry for Parkinson’s and related disorders which serves as a resource to understand clinical patterns and clinic-genetic correlations. Dr. Appel-Cresswell is a founding director of the BC Brain Wellness Foundation to foster wellbeing in chronic brain disease and aging through exercise, arts, nutrition, mind care, and education. She is spearheading the use of ultrasound to guide botulinum toxin injections for dystonia in Canada.

Dr. Appel-Cresswell is co-director of the annual National Canadian Neurology Residents Course for Movement Disorders. Her contributions to teaching were recently recognized with the “Department of Medicine (UBC) Master Teacher Award” in 2018. She serves as the secretary of the Canadian Movement Disorder Group, as a scientific advisor for Parkinson Canada and for the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation Canada as well as a peer reviewer for several scientific journals. She has been a speaker and has served on the organizing committees of several regional, national and international conferences, including the 21st International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders in 2017.

Email: silkec@mail.ubc.ca

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Dr. Jean Woo

Jean Woo, MB BChir, MA, MRCP, MD, FRCP, FRACP, FHKAM

Emeritus Professor of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Director, CUHK Jockey Club Institute of Ageing
Henry G Leong Research Professor of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Jean Woo is an Emeritus Professor of Medicine; Henry G Leong Research Professor of Gerontology and Geriatrics; Director, Jockey Club Institute of Aging; Director of the Centre for Nutritional Studies, School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; and Honorary Consultant of the Prince of Wales and Shatin Hospitals, Hospital Authority. She graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1974. After medical posts in the Charing Cross, Hammersmith, and Brompton Hospitals in the UK, she worked in part time posts in general practice as well as research at the University of Hong Kong. She joined the Department of Medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1985 as Lecturer responsible for the development of the teaching and service in Geriatric Medicine, becoming Head of the Department in 1993 until 1999, Chief of Service of the Medicine and Geriatric Unit at Shatin Hospital from 1993 to 2012, and Chair Professor of Medicine in 1994. From 2000 to 2006 she was Head of the Department of Community and Family Medicine, from 2001 to 2005 Director of the newly established School of Public Health, and from August 2013 to July 2016 Chairman of the Department of Medicine & Therapeutics. She established the Centre for Nutritional Studies in 1997 using a self financing model to carry out service, education, and research.

Professor Woo, first incumbent of the Henry G Leong Professorship of Gerontology and Geriatrics, is known for her pioneering work in the epidemiology of common chronic diseases affecting the elderly in Hong Kong, the impact of nutrition on health among the adult Hong Kong population and the elderly in institutional settings, the development and evaluation of various modes of service delivery for the elderly, and quality of life issues at the end of life, with over 800 articles in peer-reviewed indexed journals.

Dr. Kenneth Rockwood

Kenneth Rockwood, MD, FRCPC, FRCP

Professor, Division of Geriatric Medicine and Neurology, Dalhousie University
Kathryn Allen Weldon Professor of Alzheimer Research, Dalhousie University

Kenneth Rockwood, MD, FRCPC, FRCP, FCAHS, is Professor of Medicine (Geriatric Medicine & Neurology) and the Kathryn Allen Weldon Professor of Alzheimer Research at Dalhousie University. A leading authority on frailty, he is catalyst, key collaborator or research lead on numerous studies in Canada and elsewhere. Ken received his medical degrees from Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland and holds a Special Certificate in Internal Medicine, and a Certificate of Special Competence in Geriatric Medicine (both from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada). His clinical work chiefly consists in running the Medicine consultation service in the Emergency Department of the Halifax Infirmary, Atlantic Canada’s largest tertiary care hospital, and Memory Clinics there and in Sydney.

Ken has a keen interest in public policy and holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration (Queen’s University, Ontario). He serves as an active member of many national and international committees and advisory boards, including the Lancet Commission on Dementia, and as an inaugural member of Canada’s National Council on Dementia. His scientific leadership roles include being a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Chinese National Center for Gerontology, and chairing the Apathy in Dementia Methylphenidate Trial 2 of the US National Institute of Aging. Closer to home, he is the Associate Director of the Canadian Collaboration on Neurodegeneration in Aging, also leading its Quality of Life theme and Knowledge Translation platform.

Ken has published more than 450 peer-reviewed publications and nine books, including the eighth edition of Brocklehurst’s Textbook of Geriatric Medicine & Gerontology. Over his career, he has received numerous awards for research, including lectureships and prizes from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Italy, Canada, and the United States. In 2016 he received the Government of China Friendship Award for his role in helping to establish new methods of medical care for older adults there. Most recently, facilitating his work with the National Health Service of England and Wales, he has taken up an appointment as Honorary Professor of Population Science and Experimental Medicine in the Institute of Cardiovascular Science, University College London. Ken also founded and serves as the President and Chief Science Officer of DGI Clinical Inc., a university spin-off that focuses on individualized outcome measurement and advanced data analytics in several complex disease states.

Dr. Dermot Kelleher

Dermot Kelleher, MD, FRCP, FRCPI, FMedSci

Dean, Faculty of Medicine, The University of British Columbia
Vice-President, Health, The University of British Columbia
Professor, Department of Medicine, The University of British Columbia
Fellow, Royal College of Physicians of Ireland
Fellow, Royal College of Physicians, London

Dermot Kelleher, MD, FRCP, FRCPI, FMedSci, is recognized internationally for innovation in academic health leadership and administration, clinical care, research, and education.

Dr. Kelleher joined UBC in 2015 as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, and in 2018 he was appointed as Vice-President, Health for UBC. Prior to his appointment at UBC, Dr. Kelleher served as Vice-President Health and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London, where he also held a concurrent appointment as Dean of the Lee Kong Chian Medical School in Singapore until 2014. Dr. Kelleher has also served as Head of the School of Medicine and Vice Provost for Medical Affairs at Trinity College, Dublin.

Dr. Kelleher graduated from medicine from Trinity College Dublin in 1978, going on to specialize in gastroenterology. Author of 300 publications and 14 patents, Dr. Kelleher’s research examines the immune response to many of the leading causes of gastrointestinal infectious disease worldwide. Over the years he has received many prestigious awards including a Fogarty Scholarship at the University of California San Diego, Wellcome Senior Fellow in Clinical Science, and most recently the Conway Medal from the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland.

With a strong commitment to innovation and collaboration, Dr. Kelleher has worked to found several companies supporting both translational developments in biomedical science and fostering collaboration in biomedical research in both Dublin and London. He also served as President of the Federation of European Academies of Medicine until moving to British Columbia.

Sir Doug Turnbull

International Scientific Advisory Council Chair

Sir Doug Turnbull, MBBS, MD, PhD, FRCP, FMedSci

Professor of Neurology, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Director, Wellcome Centre for Mitochondrial Research
Honorary Consultant Neurologist, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Newcastle upon Tyne
Director, Newcastle University Centre for Brain Ageing and Vitality

Sir Doug Turnbull, MBBS, MD, PhD, FRCP, FMedSci, is Professor of Neurology at Newcastle University, an Honorary Consultant Neurologist at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and a director of the Wellcome Centre for Mitochondrial Research. He is also the National lead of the National Highly Specialized Services for Rare Mitochondrial Diseases of Children and Adults and Director of the Newcastle University Centre for Ageing and Vitality sponsored by RCUK. Sir Doug was educated at Newcastle University, where he was awarded a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery and qualifying as a junior doctor. He was subsequently awarded a PhD for research investigating mitochondrial cytopathies.

In his role as director of the Newcastle University Centre for Ageing and Vitality, Sir Doug oversees the Centre’s activities, which focus on understanding mechanisms underlying the ageing process and developing interventions which will promote healthy ageing. In addition, the Centre has played a significant role in capacity building in the area of lifelong health. Sir Doug has vast experience in research training for both clinical and basic scientists, including clinical training fellows and dozens of PhD students. Sir Doug has been recognised by the Royal College of Physicians on several occasions: awarded the Goulstonian Lecturer (1992), the Jean Hunter Prize (2003), and the Sims Royal College of Physicians Lecturer (2004). He was awarded a Knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2016.

Wong, Roger

Roger Wong, CM, BMSc, MD, FRCPC, FACP, FCAHS, FCGS

Dr. Roger Wong is a Clinical Professor in the Division of Geriatric Medicine at the UBC Faculty of Medicine and is a Consultant Physician of the Geriatric Consultation Program at the Vancouver General Hospital. He is the Vice Dean (Education) in the UBC Faculty of Medicine. Dr. Wong has been appointed to the Order of Canada, the first time a geriatrician is appointed to the country’s highest civilian honour, for his contributions to the field of geriatric medicine, including the advancement of policies, education and specialized, culturally sensitive health care.

Dr. Wong received his M.D. degree with Honours in Research from the University of Alberta. He was elected to the Fellowship of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, one of the highest honours in the health sciences field in Canada. Dr. Wong has also been elected to the Fellowship of the American College of Physicians and the Fellowship of the Canadian Geriatrics Society to recognize the impact of his work.

Dr. Wong has received a number of prestigious awards for his exceptional leadership in older adults’ health, including the Ronald Cape Distinguished Service Award, the highest honour given by the Canadian Geriatrics Society. He has also received numerous medical education awards, including the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada’s Duncan Graham Award for his outstanding contribution and impact to medical education across Canada, the UBC Killam Teaching Prize, the UBC Faculty of Medicine Clinical Faculty Award for Career Excellence in Clinical Teaching, and the UBC Department of Medicine Master Teacher Award.

Dr. Wong works tirelessly to advance geriatrics, with significant impact on the care for older people in Canada and the world. He was the 13th President of the Canadian Geriatrics Society, the 2017 Trevor Howell Lecturer bestowed by the British Geriatrics Society, and he received the 2019 International Visiting Professor Medal from the Australia and New Zealand Society of Geriatric Medicine. He is Board Member and Chair, Research and Knowledge Transfer and Exchange Committee of the Alzheimer Society of Canada.

Dr. Wong has published and lectured extensively on geriatric medicine and medical education. He is also a TEDx Speaker whose talk has been curated by the TED website and viewed by international audiences around the world.

Email: roger.wong@ubc.ca

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