The D. Harold Copp Lecture
The D. Harold Copp Lecture is a UBC Faculty of Medicine sponsored lectureship that arose in November 1996 through donations from the Medical Research Council of Canada and the Wolfe and Gita Churg Foundation. Named after the late Doctor D. Harold Copp, the Copp Lecture is hosted each year by the Faculty of Medicine and speakers are nominated by members of the faculty, and selected by the Copp Lecture committee.
Doctor D. Harold Copp, originally a student of the University of Toronto, earned his honours in medicine and the Faculty’s Gold medal in 1939. From there he went to Berkeley, to finish a PhD in Biochemistry at the University of California. In 1950, he came back to Canada when he was invited to become the first Head of the Department of Physiology at UBC’s newly founded Faculty of Medicine. From there he spent 30 years focused on researching hormones. In 1961, he discovered the hormone calcitonin, as it was involved in the regulation of the tone of calcim in body fluids. In 1969, he expanded upon his research when he took a team out to isolate, sequence and finally sythesize salmon calcitonin in the short span of three months. This salmon hormone was far more effective for human therapy than any found in pig or human thyroids. This eventually lead to calcitonin being used in the treatment of osteoporosis, Paget’s disease and for it to even be used as analgesic. By 1991, calcitonin exceeded $1 billion US in sales the world over, and was only exceeded in terms of sales by insulin. He eventually retired in May of 1980 and was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame for his outstanding medical contributions. However, before Doctor Copp’s retirement, his research curved towards comparing calcium regulation in lower vertebrates. This led to he and his colleagues isolating a calcium inhibiting hormone which he originally named teleocalcin, but was eventually renamed to stanniocalcin.
Doctor D. Harold Copp’s achievements were recognized many times throughout his life, receiving the Gairdner Award in 1967, the Flavelle Medal in 1972 and the Jacob Biely Research Prize in 1971. On top of all this, the Dr. Harold Copp Lectureship was announced in 1966 by the then president of the Medical Research Council, Doctor Henry Friesen, with an initial contribution of $25,000 that was matched by the Wolfe and Gita Churg Foundation.
The D. Harold Copp Lectureship Citation
Lecture Recordings
Past Lectures
2022 | 18th D. Harold Copp Lecture | Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz
Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz, Ph.D – Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Highlights from the lecture
2021 | 17th D. Harold Copp Lecture | Linda Partridge
Linda Partridge, Ph.D – Founding Director of the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Aging, Germany
Highlights from the lecture
2022 | 16th D. Harold Copp Lecture | Vishva M. Dixit
Vishva M. Dixit, M.D. – Genentech, Inc., San Francisco, USA
Highlights from the lecture
2019 | 15th D. Harold Copp Lecture | Gökhan S. Hotamişligil
Gökhan S. Hotamişligil, M.D., Ph.D – Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, MA, USA
Highlights from the lecture
2018 | 14th D. Harold Copp Lecture | Nahum Sonenberg
Translational control of cancer and brain diseases via the mRNA cap-binding protein, eIF4E
Nahum Sonenberg, M.D. – Gilman Cheney Chair in Biochemistry, Dept. of Biochemistry, Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Center, McGill University
Highlights from the lecture
2017 | 13th D. Harold Copp Lecture | Thomas Südhof
Thomas Südhof, M.D., Ph.D – Professor, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Dept. of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, CA, USA
Highlights from the lecture
2016 | 12th D. Harold Copp Lecture | Nancy C. Andreasen
Nancy C. Andreasen, M.D., Ph.D – Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, IA, USA
Highlights from the lecture
2015 | 11th D. Harold Copp Lecture | Peter Walter
Peter Walter, Ph.D – Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, MA, USA
2014 | 10th D. Harold Copp Lecture | Kai Simons
Kai Simons, M.D. – Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Germany
2013 | 9th D. Harold Copp Lecture | Marc W. Kirschner
Marc W. Kirschner, Ph.D – Professor and Founding Chair, Dept. of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, MA, USA
2012 | 8th D. Harold Copp Lecture | Freda Miller
Stem cells: building and rebuilding the nervous system
Freda Miller, Ph.D – Professor, Dept. of Molecular Genetics; Sr Scientist, Dept. Developmental & Stem Cell Biology, University of Toronto
2011 | 7th D. Harold Copp Lecture | Robert Tjian
Core transcription factors, embryonic stem cells and differentiation
Robert Tjian, Ph.D – President, Howard Hughes Investigator and Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, UC Berkeley, CA, USA
2010 | 6th D. Harold Copp Lecture | Elaine Fuchs
Stem cells in tissue morphogenesis and cancer
Elaine Fuchs, Ph.D – Professor, The Rockefeller University, NY, USA
2008 | 5th D. Harold Copp Lecture | John D. Scott
Cell signaling in Space and Time
John D. Scott, M.D., M.Sc. – Professor, University of Washington School of Medicine, WA, USA
2006 | 4th D. Harold Copp Lecture | Ronald M. Evans
Ronald M. Evans, Ph.D – Professor, Salk Institute for Biological Research, CA, USA
2005 | 3rd D. Harold Copp Lecture | Kenneth Clemetson
Platelet receptors in the critical equilibrium between bleeding and thrombosis
Kenneth Clemetson, Ph.D – Professor, Theodor Kocher Institute, University of Bern, Switzerland
2004 | 2nd D. Harold Copp Lecture | Josef Penninger
Bones, evolution and T-cells
Josef Penninger, M.D. – Professor, Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria
1999 | 1st D. Harold Copp Lecture | Salvador Moncada
The discovery and biological relevance of the L-arginine:nitric oxide pathway
Salvador Moncada, M.D., Ph.D – Professor, The Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research, University College London, U.K.