Tak wah mak biography of michael

Canadian biochemist

The native form of this personal name is Mak Tak-wah. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

In this Chinese name, the family name is Mak.

Tak Wah Mak, OC OOnt FRS FRSC (simplified Chinese: 麦德华; traditional Chinese: 麥德華; pinyin: Mài Déhuá; born October 4, 1946, in China) is a Canadian medical researcher, geneticist, oncologist, and biochemist.

He first became widely known for his discovery of the T-cell receptor in 1983 and pioneering work in the genetics of immunology.^[3] In 1995, Mak published a landmark paper on the discovery of the function of the immune checkpoint protein CTLA-4, thus opening the path for immunotherapy/checkpoint inhibitors as a means of cancer treatment.^[4] Mak is also the founder of Agios Pharmaceuticals, whose lead compound, IDHIFA®, was approved by the FDA for acute myeloid leukemia in August 2017, becoming the first drug specifically tar