Michael R. Hayden

Michael R. Hayden, is a Killam Professor of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia, the highest honour UBC can confer on any faculty member. Only four such awards have ever been conferred in the Faculty of Medicine. Hayden is best known for his research in Huntington disease (HD).

He is a senior scientist and former director of the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics (CMMT) in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; a genetic research centre within UBC's Faculty of Medicine and affiliated with the BC Children's Hospital Research Institute and the BC Children's Hospital Foundation, which he founded. He was also Canada Research Chair in Human Genetics and Molecular Medicine from 2000-2021 and the Program Director of the Translational Laboratory in Genetic Medicine in Singapore from 2011 to 2020. Dr. Hayden was appointed as the President of Global R&D and Chief Scientific Officer at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries from 2012 to 2017. During this time, he led approximately 35 new products to approval in major markets with many for diseases of the central nervous system and led the approval of Austedo for chorea in HD, the second drug ever to be approved for HD. In 2015, Teva R&D was recognized as one of the 10 most exciting innovators in Pharma by IDEA Pharma and in 2017, Teva R&D ranked top of the industry for CNS development and clinical trial success by Pharma Intelligence.

Hayden is the most cited author in the world for Huntington disease and ABCA1, and has authored over 940 publications and invited submissions (Google Scholar citations 110,999, h-index 169, i10-index 795; Web of Science citations 71,448, h-index 120).

Dr. Hayden is the recipient of numerous prestigious honours and awards. Most recently, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science in Medicine (honoris causa), University of Cape Town (2024) and the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award by the Huntington Study Group, USA. He was named one of PharmaVoice’s “100 of the Most Inspiring People” in 2015 and for the second time in 2022 and awarded the David Dubinsky Humanitarian Award from the American Friends of Soroka Medical Center (AFSMC) (2020). He was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 2017. Hayden received the Canada Gairdner Foundation Wightman Award in 2011, recognizing him as a physician-scientist who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in medicine and medical science. In 2010, he was awarded Member of the Order of Canada, following his receipt of the Order of British Columbia in 2009. In 2008, Dr. Hayden received recognition from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) as Canada's Health Researcher of the Year: CIHR Michael Smith Prizes in Health Research. and in 2007, he received the Prix Galien which recognizes the outstanding contribution of a researcher to Canadian pharmaceutical research.

In addition to his academic work, Hayden is the co-founder of five biotechnology companies including: Prilenia, NeuroVir Therapeutics Inc., Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Aspreva Pharmaceuticals Corp and 89Bio and the CEO of Prilenia Therapeutics. He currently sits on different public and private boards of biotechnologies companies.

Dr. Hayden is committed to empowering others. In addition to mentoring over 100 graduate students and postdocs, he is also a TED mentor. Provided by Wikipedia