James Till
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'''Dr. James Edgar Till''' [[Order of Canada|O.C.]], [[Order of Ontario|O.Ont.]], [[Royal Society of Canada|F.R.S.C.]] (born 1931) is a [[Canada|Canadian]] [[biophysics|biophysicist]], best known for demonstrating – with [[Ernest McCulloch]] – the existence of [[stem cell]]s.
==Early work==
Till was born in [[Saskatchewan]], Canada at [[Lloydminster]], which is located on the border between [[Saskatchewan]] and [[Alberta]]. The family farm was located north of [[Lloydminster]], in [[Alberta]]; the eastern margin of the farm was the [[Alberta]]-[[Saskatchewan]] boundary.
He studied science at the [[University of Saskatchewan]], finishing his bachelor's degree in 1952 and his master's in physics in 1954. Some of this early work was with [[Harold E. Johns]], a pioneer in [[cobalt|cobalt-60]] [[radiotherapy]].
Till completed his Ph.D. in biophysics at [[Yale University]] in 1957.
==Stem cells==
Harold Johns recruited Till to the [[Ontario Cancer Institute]] at [[Princess Margaret Hospital (Toronto)|Princess Margaret Hospital]] shortly after he completed his work at Yale. Subsequently, Till chose to work with [[Ernest McCulloch]]. 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 and McCulloch were joined by graduate student Andy Becker. They cemented their stem cell theory and in 1963 published their results in ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]''. In the same year, in collaboration with [[Louis Siminovitch|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]].
== Later career ==
In the 1980s Till's focus shifted, moving gradually into evaluation of cancer therapies, quality of life issues, and [[Internet research]], including [[Internet research ethics]] and the ethics of [[List mining]].
Till holds the distinguished title of University Professor Emeritus at the [[University of Toronto]].
Recently, Till has been a vocal proponent of [[Open access|Open Access]] to scientific publications.
== Honours ==
*1993, awarded [[Robert L. Noble Prize]] by the [[National Cancer Institute of Canada]]
*1994, made an Officer of the [[Order of Canada]]
*2000, made a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of London]]
*2004, inducted into the [[Canadian Medical Hall of Fame]]
*2005, he and Ernest A. McCulloch were awarded the [[Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research]]
*2006, made a member of [[Order of Ontario]]
== Selected publications ==
*Till, J.E., McCulloch, E.A. (1961) A direct measurement of the radiation sensitivity of normal mouse bone marrow cells. ''Radiation Research'' '''14''':213-22.
*Becker, A.J., McCulloch, E.A., Till, J.E. (1963) Cytological demonstration of the clonal nature of spleen colonies derived from transplanted mouse marrow cells. ''Nature'' '''197''':452-4.
*Siminovitch, L., McCulloch, E.A., Till, J.E. (1963) The distribution of colony-forming cells among spleen colonies. ''Journal of Cellular and Comparative Physiology'' '''62''':327-36.
*Sutherland, H.J., Llewellyn-Thomas, H., Boyd, N.F., Till, J.E. (1982) Attitudes toward quality of survival. The concept of "maximal endurable time". ''Medical Decision Making'' '''2'''(3):299-309.
*Mayer, M., Till, J.E. (1996) The Internet: a modern Pandora's box? ''Quality of Life Research'' '''5'''(6):568-71.
*Till, J.E. (2001) Predecessors of preprint servers. ''Learned Publishing'' '''14'''(1):7-13.
*Till, J.E. (2003) Success factors for open access. ''Journal of Medical Internet Research'' '''5'''(1):e1. [http://www.jmir.org/2003/1/e1/ http://www.jmir.org/2003/1/e1/]
== External links ==
*[http://www.cdnmedhall.org/laureates/?laur_id=63 Canadian Medical Hall of Fame entry]
*[http://myprofile.cos.com/tillj16 Community of Science CV]
*[https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/2326//browse-title Joint publications by Till and McCulloch, 1961-1969]; full text courtesy [[University of Toronto]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Till, James}}
[[Category:1931 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Canadian medical researchers]]
[[Category:Cancer researchers]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada]]
[[Category:Members of the Order of Ontario]]
[[Category:Officers of the Order of Canada]]
[[Category:Stem cell researchers]]
[[Category:University of Saskatchewan alumni]]
[[ja:ジェイムズ・ティル]]