Clinician-scientist begins career with prestigious honour

Dr. Tammy Ryan is launching her career in Calgary with an impressive list of achievements. 

Having just completed her subspecialty fellowship in electrophysiology, Ryan, MD, PhD, recently officially stepped into her dual role as a new clinician-researcher at the University of Calgary's Libin Cardiovascular Institute. 

Adding momentum to her arrival, she was also just named a winner of the prestigious 2026 Gairdner Early Career Investigators award.

The honour places Ryan among a select nationwide cohort invited to present their work alongside highly accomplished global leaders during Gairdner Science Week in October. The achievement brings Ryan’s journey full circle.

"I am incredibly grateful and honoured to have been selected by Dr. Jeffery Kelly to join this year’s cohort," Ryan says. "I remember attending the Gairdner lectures when I was in graduate school and the excitement surrounding them every year."

Presented by the Gairdner Foundation, the Early Career Investigator awards recognize “individuals who have made contributions in the conquest of disease and the relief of human suffering.” The awards are funded by the federal government and the provinces of Alberta, Quebec and Ontario. Recipients are mentored by Gairdner Award Laureates. Two of the six recipients announced on July 30 are from UCalgary: Ryan and Dr. Ann Gregory of the Faculty of Science.

For Ryan, the opportunity carries personal significance. 

She is eager to meet Kelly, a 2026 Canada Gairdner International Award laureate whose groundbreaking research transformed the treatment of transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM). ATTR-CM is a progressive, life-threatening heart disease triggered when misfolded transthyretin proteins build up directly inside the heart muscle — a condition Ryan has diagnosed and treated in her own practice.

Driven by the conviction that stem cell science will be increasingly important in saving lives and improving outcomes for patients, Ryan’s career bridges complex laboratory science with frontline patient care. 

She earned her PhD in biochemistry at the University of Ottawa, followed by postdoctoral research at California’s Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute. 

Her early lab work mapped how toxic proteins alter stem cells in Parkinson’s disease models, and she discovered new insights into how early stem cells turn into heart cells by uncovering a chemical "switch" pathway that controls heart tissue growth.

Her passion for translating those laboratory discoveries into actual clinical therapies led her to medical school at the University of Toronto. During her residency training at McMaster, she fell in love with cardiology, specifically with electrophysiology — the specialized branch focused on the heart’s electrical system.

"Cardiology is the best specialty," Ryan says. "Electrophysiology uses a totally unique skill set, and I love that it is just so diverse."

In Calgary, Ryan manages patients who need complex cardiac devices like pacemakers and defibrillators while running a cutting-edge research program. 

Her current research focus is on how the extracellular matrix contributes to the destabilization and deposition of transthyretin, as well as its link with atrial fibrillation in patients with ATTR-CM. 

"Seeing how biochemistry can take us all the way from protein structure and function to treating illness has been so meaningful for me," Ryan says. "It reflects the kind of translational science I hope to build in my own career."

She says Calgary provides a wonderful ecosystem to realize that vision. 

"The group here is really excellent," Ryan says. "My colleagues are very forward-thinking and early adopters of new technology, which is exciting."