Understanding disease, preserving Indigenous languages

What do Albert Einstein, Nelson Mandela and the University of Toronto’s Keren Rice and David MacLennan have in common? All have been elected foreign members of the prestigious American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

The Academy is one of the most prestigious honorary societies of scholars, scientists, writers, artists, philanthropists and business leaders in the United States. Founded in 1780, it includes more than 250 Nobel laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.

Rice is being recognized for her work documenting, sustaining and revitalizing aboriginal languages. MacLennan is being recognized for his medical research. The University Professors are two of just 16 foreign honorary members among the 197 new members announced by the Academy this month. 

Studying and Protecting Indigenous Language in the Northwest Territories
Many of the more than 60 native languages across Canada that were registered in the 2011 census have very few native speakers today. Dene, an Athapaskan language of the Northwest Territories, remains vital in many communities and Rice, of the department of linguistics, is a big part of the reason why.

Her work includes a dictionary and A Grammar of Slave, a book published in 1989 that maps out Dene grammar and is still in wide use today. Rice has also brought her research directly into the community for the benefit of native teachers and students by helping to develop training programs and language sustainability and research strategies for northern communities.

“Fieldwork satisfies many needs for me – to work with people, to challenge myself in new situations, to learn about other cultures, to do something beyond the purely intellectual work, something that might be helpful to others,” Rice said in an interview with The Linguist List. “It is not for everyone, but for me it meets needs that I think were instilled in me by my social worker mother.”

The celebrated scholar was elected to the American Philosophical Society last year and received the Molson prize in the humanities and social sciences for outstanding lifetime achievement and ongoing contribution to the cultural and intellectual life of Canada in 2012 and the Canada Council for the Arts’ Killam Prize in 2011. She is also a member of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, founding director of U of T’s Centre for Aboriginal Initiatives and recipient of the university’s most prestigious teaching accolade, the President’s Teaching Award.

Rice was completely taken by surprise by this latest recognition, unaware that she had even been nominated.

“It has been a real honour to have the privilege of working with speakers of some of the indigenous languages in Canada, especially with people in some of the Dene communities of the Northwest Territories,” she said. “It has been a tremendous learning experience for me, and I only hope that I have been able to make some contribution to them as well.This honour belongs with all of them.”

From agriculture to medical breakthroughs

The seeds of MacLennan’s career in medical research were planted early in his childhood, growing up on the Canadian prairies. His father was an elite seed grower who raised plots of new varieties of disease-resistant grains developed by the Federal Department of Agriculture and the University of Manitoba and young David saw firsthand the power of science. 

“The old, susceptible varieties withered, whereas the new, disease-resistant varieties thrived,” said MacLennan (pictured at right).

Today, MacLennan is known for his groundbreaking work to understand how calcium fluxes within muscle tissue to regulate muscle contraction and relaxation. Understanding that process is critical to addressing muscle-related ailments, including heart conditions such as cardiomyopathy.

However, the road that led him to this point began on the family farm in Swan River, Manitoba (approximately 500 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg). The remote location meant that MacLennan had to complete part of his high school education through correspondence courses – self-directed learning that prepared him well for the diverse pursuits that would follow. 

MacLennan studied at the University of Manitoba, where he earned an undergraduate degree in agriculture science. However, he grew increasingly interested in the basic sciences and completed a master’s and PhD in biological sciences from Purdue University. After serving as a postdoctoral fellow and assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin, he joined U of T’s Banting and Best Department of Medical Research and went on to lead the department for 12 years. He was named University Professor – U of T’s highest honor for faculty members – in 1993. 

“My lab developed a reputation for training outstanding biological scholars from around the world, especially our postdoctoral fellows,” said MacLennan, who noted many are now faculty members at leading universities around the world, including at U of T. He has trained more than 70 postdocs, graduate students and visiting professors over the years.

His research has focused on how calcium moves through sarcoplasmic reticulum — or SR — which controls how muscle tissue contracts and relaxes. When this process doesn’t function properly, often due to underlying genetic causes, a range of diseases can occur. They include malignant hyperthermia (a toxic response to general anesthesia), central core disease (which causes progressive skeletal muscle degeneration), Brody myopathy (which slows skeletal muscle relaxation) and cardiomyopathy (when heart muscle progressively loses its ability to contract, leading to heart failure).

For his work, MacLennan has been recognized with many of the top awards in his field, including the Killam Prize (Health Sciences) in 1997, the Gairdner Foundation International Award in 1991, election to the Royal Societies of Canada in 1985 and of London in 1994, election as a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences USA in 2001, appointment to the Order of Canada in 2001 and the Order of Ontario in 2009. He was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 2013.

“It’s a great honour to be recognized by the Academy and to have the opportunity to meet yearly with this esteemed group of scholars and thinkers. The Academy has a rich history, and I hope to be able to contribute to it in the years to come,” he said.

MacLennan and Rice will be officially inducted at a ceremony in October alongside singer-songwriter Judy Collins, Pulitizer-prize winner Holland Cotter, novelist Tom Wolfe, Nobel prize-winner Brian Kobilka, actor Christopher Plummer and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Kim Luke is a writer with the Faculty of Arts & Science and Liam Mitchell is a writer with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto.