Dr. Bruce M. McManus MD, PhD, FRSC, FCAHS

In an extraordinary career spanning more than four decades, Dr. Bruce M. McManus has made many world-class contributions to the field of heart and lung research. A visionary and respected leader in the area of organ failure and transplantation— particularly heart inflammation and infection and transplant vascular disease— Dr. McManus’s longstanding work has the potential to dramatically alter the treatment and care of patients with heart, kidney and liver transplants, thereby improving the lives of a countless many.

Dr. McManus first received his undergraduate arts and science degree at the University of Saskatchewan in 1967. He then pursued additional graduate and postdoctoral studies at various universities across the United States before returning to Canada to complete his medical training. In 1977, he received his MD degree from the University of Saskatchewan and went on to complete his residency in medicine and pathology, with an additional post-graduate focus on cardiology and cardiovascular pathology.

In 1993, Dr. McManus joined the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia as the Department Head of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, bringing with him 11 years as a clinician-scientist at the University of Nebraska Medical Centre and as John F. Fogarty Senior International Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany.

Throughout his years in medicine, Dr. McManus has taken on numerous critically important leadership roles including: Co-Director and then Director of the James Hogg iCAPTURE Centre for Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Research at St. Paul’s Hospital/ Providence Health Care, inaugural Scientific Director of the Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Scientific Director of the Heart Centre at St. Paul’s Hospital, and Co-Director of the community-wide Institute for Heart + Lung Health in Vancouver, to name a very few. His body of work includes approximately 380 peer-reviewed articles, more than 50 book chapters and 450 invited presentations made throughout the world.

In 2008, under Dr. McManus’s leadership, the NCE CECR Centre of Excellence for the Prevention of Organ Failure (PROOF Centre) was created. A not-for-profit organization, the PROOF Centre develops blood tests to better predict, diagnose, manage and treat patients with heart, lung and kidney disease, and help patients at risk of organ failure or transplant rejection. In addition, in the last year, he also co-founded three new biotechnology and health companies.

Dr. McManus has been lauded in Canada and internationally for his impact, productivity and inspiration as a clinician, educator, researcher and leader. His scientific contributions have been deservedly recognized through many awards and distinctions and reflect a career built on excellence.

With Canadian Blood Services’ Lifetime Achievement Award, Dr. McManus now joins an illustrious list of peers and leaders who, like him, have made significant advancements in the fields of transfusion medicine and transplantation in Canada.