Paul Negulescu: Gairdner Award for Cystic Fibrosis Drug Discovery

Pioneering Cystic Fibrosis Research

• 💡 Paul Negulescu, Senior Vice President of Research at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, was honored with the 2025 Canada Gairdner International Award.
• 🔬 His team's 25 years of research focused on discovering small molecules (pills) to restore the function of the defective protein that causes cystic fibrosis.
• 💊 This groundbreaking work led to transformative drug therapies that can now treat approximately 90% of people with CF, a medical achievement once considered impossible.

The Canada Gairdner Award Recognition

• 🏆 Receiving the Canada Gairdner International Award is an incredible honor for Negulescu, who emphasizes it recognizes the work of thousands of people on his team.
• 🤝 The award is particularly meaningful due to the international collaboration between Canadian scientists at Sick Kids in Toronto and US scientists at the University of Michigan, who together discovered the CF gene.

Strategic Approach to Drug Discovery

• 🎯 The team approached the cystic fibrosis problem with the **