Allen C Eaves

Allen C. Eaves (born 1941) was the founding Director of the Terry Fox Laboratory for Hematology/Oncology Research, which over a 25 year period (1981–2006) he grew into an internationally recognized centre for the study of leukemia and stem cell research. His own research on chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) has led the way to a new understanding of the disease. As Head of Hematology at the British Columbia Cancer Agency and the University of British Columbia for 18 years (1985–2003) he engineered the building of one of the first and largest bone marrow transplant programs in Canada. In recognition of his research accomplishments and leadership in moving basic science discoveries in stem cell biology into the clinic, he was elected President of the International Society of Cellular Therapy (1995–1997), Treasurer of the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (1995–2002) and President of the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (1999–2000). In 2003 he was awarded the prestigious R. M. Taylor Medal by the Canadian Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute of Canada. In 2016 he was awarded the Order of British Columbia as well as named Ernst and Young's Entrepreneur Of The Year™ Pacific.

In 2006 Eaves retired as required by provincial law at that time, becoming Professor Emeritus of Hematology and spending more time on several companies he founded to further the fields of cellular therapy and regenerative medicine - STEMCELL Technologies, STEMSOFT Software Inc. and Malachite Management Inc. These companies continue to grow under his leadership and by 2016, STEMCELL had over 900 employees making Canada's largest biotechnology company. In 2016, STEMCELL was awarded overall Exporter of the Year, as well as won in the Advancing Technology & Innovation category, while Dr. Eaves won in the Leadership category at the BC Export Awards.

Allen Eaves is the son of Charles Eaves, a Canadian horticultural scientist who extended the storage of apples by controlling levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide, and Margot Vernon Smith, granddaughter of T. T. Vernon Smith, a civil engineer who managed the building of the Windsor and Annapolis Railway. Allen Eaves was born in Ottawa, but moved at an early age to Nova Scotia. Interested in science, he attended Acadia University and graduated with a BSc in Biology and Mathematics in 1962. He then went to Dalhousie University, completing his MSc in cell physiology under Dr. Gordon Kaplan on A Radiological Investigation of Two Cellular Enzyme Systems of Yeast (1964). The untimely cancer death of a family friend led him to switch to medicine, completing his MD and internship in 1969. During his medical training he was greatly influenced by Dr. Ross Langley, a research-oriented hematologist who suggested that Eaves do a PhD at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto where Dr. Robert Bruce was collaborating with Drs. James Till and Ernest McCulloch (Lasker Award) on how different types of cancer chemotherapeutic agents killed tumour stem cells while sparing normal stem cells.

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