NSERC Prizes
Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering
David Wishart
Departments of Biological Sciences and Computing Science
Dr. David Wishart, a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Alberta, is a trailblazer in metabolomics who has spent over 30 years decoding metabolites, the tiny molecules flowing through our bodies that reveal what we eat, how we live, and what illnesses we may face. As a pioneer and leading figure in the field of metabolomics, Wishart is revolutionising how we detect diseases, how we understand the chemical effects of our environment, and how we can personalize nutrition.
Wishart’s team was the first to automate metabolomics testing. They then followed on by building the world’s largest open-access database for human metabolites. Later, his lab developed MetaboAnalyst, a user-friendly online tool that helps researchers interpret complex metabolomics data. These tools have made it possible for researchers around the globe to quickly identify thousands of chemicals in a single sample, to predict how chemicals behave in the body, to identify previously unknown chemicals, and even design new drugs.
To make these tools and ideas more accessible, Wishart founded The Metabolomics Innovation Centre (TMIC), Canada’s national metabolomics hub. TMIC processes tens of thousands of samples for scientists each year and the results are then used in everything from cancer research to food safety testing.
More recently his team has been using machine learning to identify unknown chemicals—including hidden environmental toxins—and predict how the body will respond to them. These discoveries are laying the foundation for exposomics, a new field he is pioneering that studies how chemicals in our environment affect our health. The databases he developed for exposomics, including DrugBank and FooDB, are now used by scientists in more than 200 countries.
After dedicating his career to making science more open, accessible, and understandable, Dr. David Wishart is helping to usher in a new era of personalized medicine, precision nutrition and sustainable environmental health. His breakthroughs promise a future where diseases are caught earlier, treatments are more precise, and the invisible world of chemicals becomes more visible and meaningful to all of us.
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