James Edgar Till (born August 25, 1931) is a

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

biophysicist Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations. Bi ...

, best known for demonstrating – with Ernest McCulloch – the existence of

stem cell In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of ...

Early work

Till was born in

Lloydminster Lloydminster is a city in Canada which has the unusual geographic distinction of straddling the provincial border between Alberta and Saskatchewan. The city is incorporated by both provinces as a single city with a single municipal administrati ...

, which is located on the border between

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...

and

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Terri ...

. The family farm was located north of

, in

; the eastern margin of the farm was the

–

boundary. He attended the

University of Saskatchewan A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

with scholarships awarded by the

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...

Company and the National Research Council, graduating with a B.Sc. in 1952 and a M.Sc. in physics in 1954. Some of his early work was conducted with Harold E. Johns, a pioneer in

cobalt-60 Cobalt-60 (60Co) is a synthetic radioactive isotope of cobalt with a half-life of 5.2713 years. It is produced artificially in nuclear reactors. Deliberate industrial production depends on neutron activation of bulk samples of the monoisoto ...

radiotherapy Radiation therapy or radiotherapy, often abbreviated RT, RTx, or XRT, is a therapy using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer treatment to control or kill malignant cells and normally delivered by a linear accelerator. Radi ...

. Till proceeded to

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the worl ...

, where he received a Ph.D. in biophysics in 1957. He then became a post-doctoral fellow at the

Stem cells

Harold E. Johns recruited Till to the Ontario Cancer Institute at Princess Margaret Hospital shortly after he completed his work at Yale. Subsequently, Till chose to work with Ernest McCulloch at the

. Thus, the older physician's insight was combined with the younger physicist's rigorous and thorough nature. In the early 1960s, McCulloch and Till started a series of experiments that involved injecting bone marrow cells into irradiated mice. They observed that small raised lumps grew on the spleens of the mice, in proportion to the number of bone marrow cells injected. Till and McCulloch dubbed the lumps 'spleen colonies', and speculated that each lump arose from a single marrow cell: perhaps a stem cell. In later work,

Till & McCulloch Till & McCulloch are James Till and Ernest McCulloch who, while studying the effect of radiation on the bone marrow of mice at the Ontario Cancer Institute, in Toronto, demonstrated the existence of multipotent stem cells in 1961. Collaboratio ...

were joined by graduate student Andy Becker. They cemented their stem cell theory and in 1963 published their results in ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are p ...

''. In the same year, in collaboration with Lou Siminovitch, a trailblazer for molecular biology in Canada, they obtained evidence that these same marrow cells were capable of self-renewal, a crucial aspect of the functional definition of stem cells that they had formulated. In 1969, Till became a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...

Later career

In the 1980s Till's focus shifted, moving gradually into evaluation of cancer therapies, quality of life issues, and

Internet research Internet research is the practice of using Internet information, especially free information on the World Wide Web, or Internet-based resources (like Internet discussion forum) in research. Internet research has had a profound impact on the way i ...

, including

Internet research ethics Internet research ethics involves the research ethics of social science, humanities, and scientific research carried out via the Internet. Of particular interest is the example of English Wikipedia and research ethics. The usual view is that privat ...

and the ethics of

List mining {{debate, date=September 2015 List mining can be defined as the use, for purposes of scientific research, of messages sent to Internet-based electronic mailing lists. List mining raises novel issues in Internet research ethics. These ethical issue ...

. Till holds the distinguished title of University Professor Emeritus at the

. Recently, Till has been a vocal proponent of

open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...

to scientific publications. Until 2019, Till was an editorial member of the

open access journal Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...

Journal of Medical Internet Research The ''Journal of Medical Internet Research'' is a peer-reviewed open-access medical journal established in 1999 covering eHealth and "healthcare in the Internet age". The editors-in-chief are Gunther Eysenbach and Rita Kukafka. The publisher is JM ...

. Till was a founding member of the Board of Directors of the

Canadian Stem Cell Foundation The Canadian Stem Cell Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization established in 2008 and situated in Ottawa, Ontario. Stem Cell science is a Canadian innovation through the discovery of stem cells by Drs. James Till and Ernest McCullo ...

(no longer active).

Honours

*1969, he and Ernest A. McCulloch were awarded the

Canada Gairdner International Award The Canada Gairdner International Award is given annually by the Gairdner Foundation at a special dinner to five individuals for outstanding discoveries or contributions to medical science. Receipt of the Gairdner is traditionally considered a ...

*1993, awarded Robert L. Noble Prize by the

National Cancer Institute of Canada The Canadian Cancer Society (french: Société canadienne du cancer) is Canada's largest national cancer charity and the largest national charitable funder of cancer research in Canada. History The idea to form the Canadian Cancer Society origin ...

, now th
research arm of the Canadian Cancer Society
*1994, made an Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with ...

*2000, made a Fellow of the

Royal Society of London The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

*2004, inducted into the

Canadian Medical Hall of Fame __NOTOC__ The Canadian Medical Hall of Fame is a Canadian charitable organization, founded in 1994, that honours Canadians who have contributed to the understanding of disease and improving the health of people. It has an exhibit hall in London, O ...

*2005, he and Ernest A. McCulloch were awarded the

Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research The Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research is one of the prizes awarded by the Lasker Foundation for a fundamental discovery that opens up a new area of biomedical science. The award frequently precedes a Nobel Prize in Medicine; almost 5 ...

*2006, made a member of

Order of Ontario The Order of Ontario () is the most prestigious official honour in the Canadian province of Ontario. Instituted in 1986 by Lieutenant Governor Lincoln Alexander, on the advice of the Cabinet under Premier David Peterson, the civilian order i ...

*2018, awarde
Edogawa-NICHE Prize

Selected publications

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Canadian Medical Hall of Fame entryJames Till CV

Community of Science Community of Science was a collection of online databases, providing research information to both the public and subscribers, and services for the research community. It is owned by ProQuest. History Community of Science was founded in 1988 by ...

Joint publications by Till and McCulloch, 1961-1969
full text courtesy

Follow Jim Till on twitterJames E. Till archival papers
held at th
University of Toronto Archives and Records Management ServicesU of Toronto researcher James Till receives International Honour
{{DEFAULTSORT:Till, James 1931 births Living people Canadian medical researchers Cancer researchers Canadian Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Members of the Order of Ontario Officers of the Order of Canada Stem cell researchers University of Saskatchewan alumni People from Lloydminster Recipients of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research Yale University alumni Canadian biophysicists 20th-century Canadian scientists 21st-century Canadian scientists Scientists from Saskatchewan