This interview with Dr. Daniel Drucker, senior investigator at Sinai Health’s Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, or LTRI, is part of Behind the Science, a regular series from Sinai Health Foundation that asks some of its brightest and world-leading researchers about what drives their curiosity about the human body in health and illness. Dr. Drucker, a superstar in the world of diabetes research, was recently awarded the 2020 Warren Alpert Prize by Harvard Medical School, an award recognizing discoveries that enabled design of treatments for diabetes and obesity.

What’s been your biggest ‘A-HA’ moment to date?

There has been no single moment, just the slow realization over decades that understanding how the human body works is very cool, and may have medical benefits over time.

What’s one of the biggest challenges you’ve faced and why?

The major challenge is constantly securing research funding. Canada funds small grants, relative to our international competitors in many other countries.

What’s been one of your greatest rewards in your career so far?

One of the greatest rewards in my career has been seeing science we have worked on being developed into new therapies for diseases that have provided clear benefits to patients.

What is one thing you’d like to accomplish in the next decade?

Stay out of trouble.

What advice would you have to share with your 19-year old self?

The library is overrated.

What is on your bucket list?

I have no bucket list, I just try and enjoy every day, wherever I am, whatever I am doing and whomever I am with.

What would your perfect day be like?

Family, friends, food, frivolity, freedom, fairness.

Who would you invite, alive or dead, to your dream dinner party?

Winston Churchill