astronomy

John Edgar Dick

John Edgar Dick is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John Edgar Dick rather than just read about it. In short: John Edgar Dick (born 1954) is Canada Research Chair in Stem Cell Biology, Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network and Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto in Canada. Dick is credited with first identifying cancer stem cells in certain types of human leukemia.

Key takeaways

John Edgar Dick belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John Edgar Dick to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John Edgar Dick from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John Edgar Dick (born 1954) is Canada Research Chair in Stem Cell Biology, Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network and Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto in Canada. Dick is credited with first identifying cancer stem cells in certain types of human leukemia. His revolutionary findings highlighted the importance of understanding that not all cancer cells are the same and thus spawned a new direction in cancer research. Dick is also known for his demonstration of a blood stem cell's ability to replenish the blood system of a mouse, his development of a technique to enable an immune-deficient mouse to carry and produce human blood, and his creation of the world's first mouse with human leukemia.

Early life and education Dick was raised on a farm in southern Manitoba. His early education was gained in a one-room schoolhouse. Later he moved to Winnipeg to study to become an X-ray technician. There he noticed one of his roommates was attending university and studying biology. Dick realized he was more interested in biology and decided to switch pursuits. Dick started off at the University of Manitoba specializing in microbiology and graduating with a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1984.

Career and research In 1984, he moved to Toronto. In order to support his wife and two children, Dick worked part-time at an X-ray lab while he finished his post-doctorate work in Alan Bernstein’s lab. Bernstein, a noted cancer researcher whose Ph.D. advisor was James Till at the Ontario Cancer Institute, guided Dick to research cancers of the blood. Over the next five years, Dick developed an in vivo repopulation assay using the NOD/SCID mouse. This technique of using an immune-deficient mouse to generate human hematopoietic cells won Dick international recognition. In 1994, Nature published his paper which described how cancer stem cells grow slowly. Dick explained, "Most kinds of chemotherapy are designed to kill fast-growing cancer cells. This is why leukemia can come back after treatment. To get rid of the cancer, you have to find ways of eliminating the stem cells." Many researchers dismissed Dick's discovery as interesting, but something not likely to apply to solid tumours. In 1997, Dick reported the detection of cancer stem cells at the root of three other forms of leukemia. This time he presented it as the "cancer stem-cell hypothesis". His model stated that there are different cancer cells and amongst them there is a pecking order in which the abnormal stem cell, is both the key to forming and feeding a cancer. Therefore, without an abnormal stem cell, cancers will not grow. This time his report was considered a breakthrough. Dick has transformed the study of human hematopoiesis and leukemogenesis, with his development of methodologies for transplanting human bone marrow into immune-deficient mice, with resultant multilineage repopulation of murine bone marrow and other hematopoietic tissues. Using this approach, he has identified long-term repopulating human hematopoietic stem cells and generated mouse models of leukaemia. His studies showing that a specific subset of leukemic cells are actually capable of recapitulating tumour growth are recognised as the foundation for all current work on the cancer stem cell model and its application to cancer therapy. As of 2006, Dick is a Senior Scientist in the Division of Cellular & Molecular Biology of the Toronto General Research Institute, and founding member of Canada's Stem Cell Network.

Awards and honours Dick's awards and honours include:

1997: awarded the Michael Smith Prize by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research 2000: awarded the Robert L. Noble Prize for Excellence in Cancer Research by the National Cancer Institute of Canada 2002: awarded the Herman Boerhaave Medal by the Leiden University, Netherlands 2004: elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC) 2005: awarded the William Dameshek Prize by the American Society of Hematology 2007: awarded a Premier's Summit Award in Medical Research, Province of Ontario 2014: elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) 2017: awarded Keio Medical Science Prize for his work on cancer stem cells 2020: Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award for Extraordinary Achievement in Cancer Research

References

This article incorporates text available under the CC BY 4.0 license.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Edgar Dick

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Edgar Dick claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John Edgar Dick before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John Edgar Dick ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John Edgar Dick

In research: John Edgar Dick appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John Edgar Dick in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John Edgar Dick is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1957 births, Academic staff of the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, Canada Research Chairs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Edgar Dick outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study John Edgar Dick in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John Edgar Dick means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John Edgar Dick out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John Edgar Dick in simple terms?

Why does John Edgar Dick matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John Edgar Dick?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John Edgar Dick.