2010 Hall of Fame Inductee
Dr. Marvin Fritzler was born in Vulcan, Alberta and received his BSc from the University of Alberta in 1968. He then completed a PhD and MD at the University of Calgary in 1971 and 1974 respectively. After his training in Internal Medicine, he was awarded a Medical Research Council Fellowship and went to The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA and then to the University of Colorado as a clinical research fellow (1976-1978) under the mentorship of Dr. Eng Tan. In 1978, Dr. Fritzler joined the University of Calgary as an Arthritis Society Scientist. He is currently Professor of Medicine at the University of Calgary where his clinical activity is devoted to clinical immunology and directing autoantibody testing through the Mitogen Advanced Diagnostics Laboratory.
Dr. Fritzler’s research interests are the identification of novel autoantibodies and biomarkers for autoimmune diseases and the development of innovative diagnostic technologies. His current research is focused on autoantibodies to GW bodies, endosomes, extracellular exosomes and ribosomal P proteins. He has published more than 300 papers and book chapters and has been a contributor to many national and international organizations. He was President of the Western Section of the American Rheumatism Association and the Canadian Society of Clinical Investigation. He serves on the Board of Directors of Genome Alberta, PrioNet, the Alberta Prion Research Institute (APRI), the Serology Committee of the International Union of Immunology Specialists and World Health Organization, and the Vaccine and Infectious Diseases Organization (VIDO). He has served on the Scientific Advisory Board of the EPA Center for Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Montana and as a consultant to ImmunoConcepts, INOVA Inc., Immunex, BioRad, InnoGenetics, Euroimmun and Mikrogen.
Dr. Fritzler is currently Chairman of the Board of the Alberta Research and Innovation Authority, an organization established by the Government of Alberta to provide strategy and policy advice in science and technology. He also holds the endowed Arthritis Society (Canada) Research Chair at the University of Calgary.