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Arthur Axelrad

In Memoriam: Arthur Axelrad

(12/30/1923 - 04/16/2015)Member since 1956

Arthur Axelrad, MD, PhD, an emeritus member of the AACR who first joined the organization in 1956, died April 17, 2015, at the age of 91. Axelrad, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada, was a renowned scientist known for his research on leukemia and hemopoiesis.

Throughout his career at the University of Toronto, Axelrad was a member of the Departments of Molecular Genetics and Medical Biophysics and the Institute of Medical Science. In 1957, he was one of the original staff appointees to the Ontario Cancer Institute, which is now incorporated as the research division of Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, affiliated to the University Health Network of the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine.

Born Dec. 30, 1923, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Axelrad received his medical and doctoral degrees from McGill University in Montreal. His research focused on chronic myeloproliferative disorders, which cause excess cells to be produced in bone marrow, thus leading to acute myeloid leukemia, and he worked to understand the underlying cellular and molecular causes.

Among his career accolades, Axelrad was inducted as a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and later received its Thomas W. Eadie Medal for his development of a cell cloning method.