André Veillette

Dr. Veillette is the Executive Director of the Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network. He is also director of the Molecular Oncology Research Unit at the Montreal Clinical Research Institute (IRCM—Institut de recherches clinique de Montréal) and a professor of medicine at the University of Montreal (UofM). Currently he is a member of the Government of Canada Vaccine Task Force on COVID-19.

Born in Trois-Rivières, Québec, Dr. Veillette holds an MD from Laval University. He conducted his speciality training in internal medicine and medical oncology at the Montreal General Hospital and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Maryland. He also completed research fellowships at NCI in the areas of breast cancer and oncogenes. He was at McGill University between 1989 and 1999, and has been at UofM since 1999. He is also an adjunct professor in experimental medicine at McGill University. He served as an assistant physician at Montreal General Hospital from 1989 to 1997.

For the duration of his career, Dr. Veillette has worked in the field of immunology where he help found the area of immune cell activation 30 years ago. Since then, he and his lab team have made important discoveries relating to CD4 and CD8 T cell co-receptors and surface antigens, the protein tyrosine kinases Csk and Lck, the role of the adaptor molecule SAP in immune regulation and the role of innate immune cells in immuno-oncology. These and other findings have provided fundamental insights into the immunological mechanisms in health and diseases including cancer.

Dr. Veillette has served on many national and international scientific committees and boards, is the author of 181 publications that have been cited almost 20,000 times, has supervised nearly 100 research trainees and taught courses in immunology and molecular and cellular biology.

He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and a Member of the Royal Society of Canada.  He is the recipient of many honours and awards including the Merck Frosst Prize, the Leo Parizeau Award and the Cinader Award. He has been Canada Research Chair in Signalling in the Immune System (2002-2023) and has received multiple research grants from Canadian funders.