CDCR Director Dr. Sheila Singh inducted into McMaster Alumni Gallery

CDCR Director, Dr.. Sheila Singh has been inducted into McMaster’s Alumni Gallery this month. The Alumni Gallery is a photographic and biographical display of some of these alumni who lead interesting lives and make outstanding contributions to society.

Dr. Singh, as graduate of McMaster’s medical school in 1997, has dedicated her career to unraveling the mysteries of the human brain. Her groundbreaking work in neurosurgery and cancer stem cell research has not only advanced scientific knowledge but also brought hope to patients facing brain tumors. She is the chief pediatric neurosurgeon at McMaster Children’s Hospital, division head of neurosurgery at Hamilton Health Sciences, the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Human Cancer Stem Cell Biology and the founding director of the Centre for Discovery in Cancer Research (CDCR).

Dr. Singh’s research has been shaped by her discovery of stem cells in brain tumors. After employing a complex process designed to make stem cells observable if they were present, Sheila looked through a microscope and experienced an archetypal eureka moment. “I saw these beautiful floating colonies – we call them spheres,” she recalled. “When you see a sphere floating in a dish, it means you’ve got stem cells. … That was the moment of discovery. That led to the discovery of the brain tumor initiating cell.” The resulting scholarly publication – which Sheila co-authored with Peter Dirks – is now the single most-cited research paper ever written by a neurosurgeon and was one of the building blocks of what has developed as a new scholarly field: cancer stem cells.

The second area where Sheila sees her research having that kind of indirect impact is in developing the next generation of surgeon-scientists. “Your legacy is all in the people you train,” she asserted. “I know these people will exceed me and surpass me and that’s exactly what I want.” She has a deep appreciation for and commitment to the apprenticeship-style path that can help turn learners into leaders.

Sheila was elected to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists and she is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. A recent recipient of the Dr. William Orovan Senior Career Research Award, she has also served as a brain tumor expert reviewer for the Pediatric Provincial Oncology Plan and the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario.

You can read more about Dr. Singh’s career and contribution to cancer research.