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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Wednesday, April 30, 2014 | 4 Award puts doctor's work into public realm -- forever A panel of national health leaders continued from p.1 and chaired by Dr. Alain Beaudet of The Bronte resident was one of six the Canadian Institutes of Health Reinductees, who joined the ranks of search (CIHR) made the selection. 101 laureates in receiving the presti"This award is really special because gious national honour. it is a hall of fame and that does someCONCRETE thing almost no other award does. It puts the discovery or the important piece of work into the public realm where people can read about it or hear about it -- and it does that forever," said Worton. "In 20 or 50 years from now, high school students, university students, friends or relatives of people with muscular dystrophy will go to the hall of fame and read about this and realize this was an important discovery about a devastating disease and it was made in Canada." Duchenne muscular dystrophy is EXPOSED AGGREGATE (Pebble) one of the most common inherited · DRIVEWAYS · STEPS diseases, affecting one in every 3,500 · FRENCH CURBS · WALKWAYS · PATIOS · GARAGE FLOORS male infants. It is typically characterized by progressive muscle weakness, inability to walk after age 12, serious respiratory infections by age 14 to 18, and respirauality At Its Best! tory failure in the 20s and 30s. Call Fernando FREE ESTIMATES In 1982 Worton took on this dis905-844-5518 ease while working in the Department 1-888-944-5518 of Genetics at the Hospital for Sick www.concretetrimmings.com Children (SickKids) in Toronto. The Winnipeg native joined the SickKids team as Director of the Cytogenetics Laboratory in 1971, but in 1985 began a 10-year term as Geneticist-in-Chief. "There had been a ton of research up to the mid-80s that had used conventional approaches to try and figure out what causes muscular dystrophy and none of those bore fruit," said Worton. "We sort of came out of left field with something that relied on a unique patient and a unique approach that was not traditional by any means and solved the problem. All of a sudden everyone in the world working on this problem realized that now we knew what caused the disease, we also knew it was going to be difficult to cure, but it shifted all of the research taking place in the world." Worton and his medical team's discovery of the dystrophin gene, which is mutated in DMD, was the first gene to be identified by positional cloning -- identifying a molecular marker close to a particular gene of interest. The find did not cure the disease, but it did give the global medical community a target for future research. It also improved diagnostic abilities for DMD. "It made the diagnosis much easier and crisper and more accurate. It allowed prenatal diagnosis to take place for those families who didn't want to take a chance on having another affected child and it redirected all the research on therapy," said Worton. "We still don't have a therapy for the disease, but all of the existing research that is going on towards that therapy, which I believe will one day happen, is based on that initial discovery." In a Worton's Canadian Medical Hall of Fame tribute video, Professor Dame Kay E. Davies, director of the Medical Research Council Functional Genomics Unit at Oxford University, said Worton's work has had an enormous impact around the world. "Since this disease occurs in every single population, we can now do a diagnosis and carrier detection for all families wherever they are," she stated. "Not only did it lead to better understanding of the disease, but it also revolutionized technically what you could do in human genetics to identify new disease genes." Worton said he fell into genetics research after earning his Bachelor and Masters of Science degrees, both in physics, from the University of Manitoba in 1964 and 1965. He switched gears and moved to the University of Toronto where he received his PhD in medical biophysics in 1969. He developed his interest in genetics during a fellowship at Yale University before coming to SickKids in 1971. During his time as geneticist-in chief at the hospital, his Genetics Department "led the world with the discovery of genes responsible for muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis, Wilson's disease, Tay-Sachs disease and Fanconi anemia," stated the release. In 1996, Worton moved to Ottawa where he led the development of the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute by bringing together a number of smaller institutes under one administrative structure, coupled with extensive recruitment of basic scientists and clinical investigators. Under his tenure, the institute grew to be one of the top health-research institutes in Canada. Worton retired in 2007 and moved to Oakville in 2012. He enjoys lawn bowling, vacationing in Arizona and spending time with his wife Helen, his adult son and two grandchildren. To learn more about Worton or to watch his tribute video, visit http:// cdnmedhall.org/dr-ronald-worton.