2024 INDUCTEE Pieter R. Cullis, PhD Infectious Disease, Allergy & Immunity

Pieter R. Cullis inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame

Vancouver, British Columbia

mRNA COVID-19 vaccines approved for emergency use

Based on an LNP delivery system developed by Acuitas, the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA vaccine BNT162b2 was approved by the US FDA in December and subsequently in many other countries worldwide. These approvals were based on the vaccine’s 95% efficacy in preventing COVID-19, together with its excellent safety profile. More than 5 billion doses were administered globally in 2021–2022.

Nanomedicine-based drug Onpattro approved by the FDA

This gene therapy was approved to treat hereditary amyloid transthyretin (hATTR) amyloidosis. Employing an LNP delivery system developed from Dr. Cullis’ research, Onpattro is able not only to stop further progression of this previously untreatable disease, but also to reverse associated neuropathies and cardiovascular issues.

Dr. Pieter Cullis co-founded the not-for-profit Personalized Medicine Initiative (PMI)

The PMI, a UBC-based organization aimed at introducing personalized medicine to the front lines of health care in Canada, also spurred the formation of several personalized medicine companies and coincided with Dr. Cullis writing a book on the subject, The Personalized Medicine Revolution.

Dr. Culllis co-founded Acuitas Therapeutics with Tom Madden and Mick Hope

This began a cascade of discovery from developing LNP formulations of messenger RNA (mRNA) to express proteins in the liver following an i.v. administration, to a collaboration with Drew Weissman (U Penn) to develop LNP formulations of mRNA as vaccines and eventually a collaboration with BioNTech (Germany) leading to the LNP system that enables the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA vaccine called Comirnaty.

Onpattro developed to treat transthyretin induced amyloidosis (hATTR), a previously fatal hereditary condition that affects some 50,000 people worldwid

A collaboration between Inex (later Acuitas), Dr. Cullis' UBC lab and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (Boston) to develop (LNP) formulations of small interfering RNA (siRNA) to inhibit production of (silence) pathological proteins in the liver was the precursor.

Dr. Cullis to co-found the not-for-profit Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD, now adMare BioInnovations)

The often frustrating process of developing potential therapeutics to reach the commercial world led Dr. Cullis to co-found the not-for-profit Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD, now adMare BioInnovations) to help attract the necessary funding for moving preclinical drug candidates into the clinic.

Co-founded Inex Pharmaceuticals with four members of his UBC laboratory

Inex went on the develop Marqibo that was approved by the FDA to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Established a collaboration with The Liposome Company (Princeton, NJ) to develop nanomedicines to treat cancer

This resulted in two drugs that received regulatory approval (Abelcet and Myocet)

Joined UBC’s Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology as an Assistant Professor

Purchased an NMR machine to study lipids in membranes with a grant from the Canadian Medical Research Council (MRC)

Completed postdoctoral work in biochemistry at the University of Oxford through an MRC fellowship

The photo features Pieter in front of an NMR machine he helped build (1975)

Graduated from UBC with a PhD in Solid State Physics