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The Krembil family knows potential when they see it

Early support for CAMH scientist Dr. Art Petronis positions CAMH as a world leader in epigenetic research

The Krembil Foundation has a strong interest in cutting-edge medical research that can create huge improvements in our lives but that has a hard time getting funding—mainly because the research is “basic,” meaning it’s at a very early stage and far from commercial application.

According to Mark Krembil, the Foundation’s president, they invest in scientists with truly breakthrough ideas. One such scientist is Dr. Art Petronis. Back in 2002, Dr. Petronis was an unknown researcher in an unproven field: epigenetics. Epigenetics is the study of the chemical modification of specific genes—where changes to a gene are made without any alteration of the DNA sequence. Often described as the “second genetic code,” epigenetics has revolutionized the fields of genetics and biology by determining if a given gene is “expressed” in a cell or organism. This has huge implications for mental health, especially for determining the root causes of schizophrenia and other psychiatric diseases.

Today, Dr. Petronis is a world-renowned scientist and the head of the Krembil Family Epigenetics Laboratory at CAMH. “The Krembil Foundation’s vision and support has allowed for dramatic advances in the field of epigenetics and has helped to establish CAMH as a world leader in epigenetic research,” says Dr. Petronis. “The implications for the future of this field are enormous.” It’s also a big step forward for CAMH, once described by Mark Krembil as an “underdog due to associated stigma.”

For Mark Krembil, Dr. Petronis fulfilled every qualification the Foundation was looking for when it first funded his work in 2002 with a donation of $1 million. First, he is what’s referred to as a “principal investigator”—leading the research of a daring and often contrarian new area of inquiry. He also brings personal drive and conviction to his work, as well as excellent communication skills, not just in terms of formal reporting, but also in terms of staying in touch about the progress of all basic research.

Says Krembil: “The human genome was mapped in 2003. Now, Art Petronis is heading a venture that’s just as daunting and consequential—mapping the human epigenome.”

“Art did a phenomenal job of leveraging the money we gave him. He turned each of our dollars into three dollars to support the work of his lab. He also helped advance the field so much that CAMH and the lab are now working closely with other partners such as the University of Toronto.”

Dr. Petronis’ early work proved so promising that last year the Krembil Foundation donated $1.2 million more to launch the Epigenomic Research Initiative. The project is also called “the lab on a chip” because it hopes to use technology to isolate the very small number of cells that are often involved in starting debilitating diseases such as major psychosis, cancer and diabetes. Working with researchers from the U of T’s Departments of Engineering and Chemistry, Dr. Petronis and his CAMH team plan to map the epigenetic signals in just a few cells or even one cell.

In the words of Francis Collins, the director of the U.S. Human Genome Project, the ability to determine the epigenetic status of all the DNA in a single cell will be a “quantum leap” in molecular biology.And because of the collaboration of a highly innovative and determined scientist and an equally innovative and determined family, Dr. Petronis and CAMH have a good chance of leading that quantum leap.