We are pleased to announce the appointment of Koren Mann, PhD, as Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dr. Mann replaces Dr. Gerhard Multhaup, who held the position since 2011. We would like to thank Dr. Multhaup for his leadership. During his tenure, the Department expanded graduate and undergraduate research training and mentorship, strengthened inter-disciplinary research and promoted inclusion through WIN4Science, the Melville bursary and other initiatives.

After graduating with a BSc in Biology from Nebraska Wesleyan University, Dr. Mann obtained a PhD in Pathology/Immunology from Boston University School of Medicine. Following that, she completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Oncology at McGill, where she researched the use of arsenic as a potential chemotherapy in cancer treatment.

Dr. Mann had been an Associate Professor, Department of Oncology, McGill, and an Associate Member in both the Department of Pharmacology and the Division of Experimental Medicine, Department of Medicine. She was recently promoted to Full Professor, with her primary affiliation now in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics. She is also an Associate Member of the Goodman Cancer Institute and serves as the McGill representative on the scientific committee for the Banque de cellules leucémiques du Québec (Quebec Leukemia Cell Bank).

Dr. Mann has also served as the Graduate Program Director, Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology, and was a member of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences Graduate Program Review Committee in 2020-2021. She is a Senior Investigator at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research at the Jewish General Hospital (LDI) and was previously the Director, Molecular and Regenerative Medicine Research Axis, at the LDI. In 2020, she received the Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology Award for Teaching and Mentorship, and in 2019 she received the Lady Davis Institute Leadership Award.

Dr. Mann has led an independent research program since 2009. Her laboratory researches the environmental health effects of metals, in particular, the toxic effects of arsenic and tungsten on the immune system and how this can lead to different pathologies. Currently, Dr. Mann leads projects including investigating arsenic-induced atherosclerosis and the effect of tungsten on bone and B lymphocytes.

In the past decade Dr. Mann has received several personal support awards from the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé. As a Principal Investigator, her current and past research funding includes grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada, the Cancer Research Society, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the US National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Mann has published extensively over the past two decades, including 75 peer-reviewed articles and several book chapters, as well as presenting almost 70 abstracts and conference presentations. She currently serves as an Associate Editor of Environmental Health Perspectives.

As Chair of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at McGill, Dr. Mann will be responsible for undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate education in the Department, build on the Department’s reputation nationally and internationally, and lead the Department in pursuing its mission to discover more selective and effective therapeutic approaches for managing disease that lead to improved health care.

Please join us in welcoming Dr. Mann to her new role and in wishing her every success as Chair of Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

Dr. David Eidelman

Vice-Principal (Health Affairs)

Dean of the Faculty of Medicine
and Health Sciences

Dr. Lesley Fellows
Vice-Dean, Academic Affairs
Dr. Alba Guarné
Associate Dean, Biomedical Sciences