20 years of discovery: the Donnelly Centre celebrates a two-decade milestone
“We gather, not just to count years or mark the passage of time, but to reflect on the vision, the people, and the science that make this place so special,” said Stephane Angers, in front of a bamboo forest in the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research. It’s the same place where, on November 5th, 2005, a group of world-class researchers and philanthropists cut a bright red ribbon and officially opened the centre's doors.
Two decades on, over a hundred members of the Donnelly Centre and Temerty Faculty of Medicine communities gathered in the building’s atrium to raise a glass to how far they’ve come.
“Today is about celebrating a community,” continued Angers, the centre's director. “Every postdoc who stays late, every trainee asking the next question, every staff member who keeps the Centre running, and every faculty member who opens their doors to collaboration. It's about the conversations in the hallways, the partnerships formed, the unexpected ideas that are explored every day. It's about looking forward.”
Biomolecular science has changed drastically since the Donnelly Centre’s doors opened. The centre was built around a core mandate of interdisciplinary collaboration and to be a global hub of collaboration in a quickly evolving environment.
“I had the privilege of being dean of medicine when James Friesen and Cecil Yip were gestating the idea of this building,” said University of Toronto President Emeritus David Naylor. “It was disruptive. Now this is the way we do bioscience. Back then, it was a path-breaking vision that Jim and Cecil had."
In the audience, among faculty, PIs, and trainees, was Terrence Donnelly, the centre's namesake and the philanthropist Naylor described as “the businessman who got it.” Beside Donnelly stood Brenda Andrews, the centre's founding director who served in the role until 2020, and shaped not only the building but the direction of biomedical research in Canada.
“I'm excited to have been involved in this enterprise for the past 20 years,” Andrews said. “I look forward to the coming years. I can see all your projects coming to fruition with the building.”
“I remember when the Donnelly was created,” said Angers, “I was in awe with the list of investigators that Brenda Andrews was able to recruit, the founding vision, and the potential for this place. Never would I have imagined that twenty years later I would have the privilege to lead this amazing place.”
As they raised their glasses, the Donnelly community toasted their building, their community and the next frontier of biomedical research. It’s a world of single cell biology, CRISPR technology, and machine learning; It’s a world of late-night lab sessions and quiet conversations in a shared space.
“As we move into the next chapter of the Donnelly's journey, we carry forward the founding vision to be bold, to be interdisciplinary, to ask the big questions, and to support every individual here to do their best work,” said Angers.
