Seminar

Inhibition of phospholipid methylation protects against atherosclerosis and diet-induced obesity

Prof. Dennis Vance

Short Biography

Dennis E. Vance is a University Professor and Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Alberta. He did his Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh supervised by Charles Sweeley. He did postdoctoral training at Harvard University with Konrad Bloch. He was Professor and Chair of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of British Columbia (1982-86) and Associate Dean of Medicine (1978 -81). He moved to the University of Alberta in 1986 to establish a Lipid Research Group. He was Director of the SCOLAR (Stroke, Cardiovascular, Obesity, Lipid, Atherosclerosis Research) Training Program from CIHR and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.  He has served on CIHR committees including Chair of the Metabolism Committee. He is Principal Investigator on two grants from CIHR. His research on mammalian phosphatidylcholine metabolism has been recognized by the Boehringer Mannheim Canada Prize of the Canadian Biochemical Society in 1989, the Heinrich Wieland Prize awarded in 1995 in Munich, Germany, election as Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (1996), a Canada Research Chair (2002), the Avanti Award from the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (2006) and the Kaplan Award from the University of Alberta (2009). He presented the Laurens van Deenen lecture at the 2008 meeting of the International Conference on the Bioscience of Lipids. He was awarded the 2010 Tier I Basic Science Mentoring Award by the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Alberta. He co-authored with Geoff Zubay Principles of Biochemistry, an introductory biochemistry textbook and co-edited with Jean Vance five editions of an advanced textbook, Biochemistry of Lipids, Lipoproteins and Membranes. The fifth edition was published in March, 2008. He was an Executive Editor of the international journal BBA for 9 years. Prof. Vance became Editor in Chief of BBA in January, 2007.