Providence Health Care recently welcomed Dr. Darryl Knight as our new Vice-President, Research and Academic Affairs, and President of the Providence Health Care Research Institute.
Dr. Knight joins us from the University of Newcastle in Australia where he was Head of the School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy. But he’s no stranger to Vancouver – or Providence. After receiving his BSc Honours degree in Pharmacology and his PhD from the University of Western Australia, Dr. Knight did post-doc training at UBC from 1995-1997. He was then recruited back to UBC in 2004 as the Canada Research Chair in Airway Disease and Associate Professor of Pharmacology. Some St. Paul’s staff may remember him from his time as Associate Director of the James Hogg Research Centre (now the Centre for Heart Lung Innovation) from 2009-2012.
With an international reputation in translational airway research, Dr. Knight has published over 165 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters and has a strong track record of securing grant funding. His new role also includes accountabilities as Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, UBC; and Associate Dean, Research, Faculty of Medicine, UBC.
Read on to learn more about Dr. Knight, his research interests, and his vision for the future of health research at PHC.
Describe your role in one sentence:
Builder, motivator, energizer and supporter.
What made you want to take the job at Providence, on the other side of the world from Australia?
I believe in the people and mission at PHC and the once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a special environment to tackle the most pressing health-related questions facing clinicians and researchers.
What are your personal research interests?
Fibrosis and aberrant wound healing. Predominantly in the lung, but any organ.
Why is health research important?
As the name suggests – for the betterment of health. The concept of “one health” intrigues me in that the health of humans is inextricably linked to the health of the ecosystem and really shouldn’t be studied in isolation.
What is your vision for the future of research at PHC?
Bringing our research to life for our patients.
What does patient-centred research mean to you?
Everything we do should begin and end with the patient.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
Golf (anywhere, anytime, anyone), bike riding, hiking.
If you had a year off with pay, what would you do?
First of all golf/whisky tour of Scotland/Ireland. Then drive from Paris to Casablanca through Spain and Morocco. Then to the Canary and Cape Verde Islands and finally into Botswana and South Africa for safaris and golf.
If you could have dinner with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?
Winston Churchill, Virginia Hall, Jane Goodall, Anika Sorenstam.
What’s your guilty pleasure?
Did I mention golf? I also have a love of fine spirits.
What is something we might be surprised to learn about you?
I have hung out with Bon Jovi, AC/DC, Metallica and Pearl Jam.
