Dr. Max Cynader

Biography

 Dr. Max Cynader is the former Director of the Brain Research Centre and the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health at Vancouver Coastal Health and the University of British Columbia (UBC), as well as Professor of Ophthalmology. In addition, he holds the Canada Research Chair in Brain Development at UBC. He is also a Member of the Order of Canada (CM), Member of the Order of British Columbia (OBC), Fellow of The Royal Society of Canada (FRSC), Fellow of The Canadian Academy for Health Sciences (FCAHS), and a Principal Investigator in Canada’s Network of Excellence in Stroke. In 2014, Dr. Cynader became a Laureate of the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.  Dr. Cynader obtained his B.Sc. at McGill University in 1967, and his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1972. Following postdoctoral training at the Max Planck Institute, Dr. Cynader held positions at Dalhousie University in Halifax, and had been Director of the Brain Research Centre at UBC from 1999 to 2014. In addition to his academic successes, Dr. Cynader has made important contributions to technology development, and to the commercialization of research results.  He is one of the scientific founders of NeuroVir, a Vancouver-based biotechnology company which has developed gene therapy products to treat brain diseases.  This company, which grew to over 60 employees, was eventually sold to a German biotechnology company, which has now taken the NeuroVir technology into phase II clinical trials.  He is also the co-founder of Wavemakers Research, a software company which has developed new and proprietary noise reducing technology.  Wavemakers grew to over 35 employees, and its technology is now in widespread use in over 20% of the world car market.  He continues to play a mentoring/angel role in our technology community.  

Research Interest

  Clinical Sciences