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• Professor and director, cardiovascular research group, department of pediatrics, University of Alberta; Canada Research Chair and Senior scholar, Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research; Vice-president, Metabolic Modulators Research Ltd., Edmonton

As little as two years ago, Jason Dyck never imagined he would be where he is today — director for a number of research groups, vice-president of a world-leading company in the application of novel drugs, and holding one of Canada's highly respected and coveted research chair positions.

In fact, Dr. Dyck says he has never been a big planner, preferring instead to go where he's taken.

"Sometimes your path chooses you, instead of you choosing your path. And doors open and you just have to decide whether you'll step through," says Dr. Dyck, who holds a Canada Research Chair in Molecular Biology of Heart Disease.

Doors first started to open in high school, where the Edmonton native always excelled at the sciences. But in university he "went through the not-really-knowing-what-I-wanted-to-do-as-an-undergrad phase." He took pre-entry-level courses in everything from medicine and dentistry to law and business.

Eventually, he tried a summer research position at a lab. He was so good that his supervisor suggested he apply for some external funding, and he was granted a $15,000 annual stipend. Then a professor suggested he get a PhD; after all, he was told, "you're so close."

"I said, 'Okay, this is it. No more school. And the next thing I know, I'm post-docing." After post-doctoral fellowships across the United States, he was drawn back to Edmonton with an offer from the University of Alberta's faculty of medicine.

In the years since, he has studied how hearts use different fuels (fats versus sugars) for energy. Most diseases of the cardiovascular system result in the heart preferring to use fat to continue beating. A key finding — "if we could regulate the metabolism of the heart we would be able to promote sugar use as opposed to fat in disease situations and that would improve function" — helped Dr. Dyck found a biotech company, Metabolic Modulators Research Ltd., in 1999.

Serendipitously, researchers have found that the drugs the company has developed for heart disease also target the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that controls appetite. The drugs can now be applied to target obesity and diabetes. "It's just like typical science — you can't really plan what's going to happen in the lab," he says, laughing.

And where does this non-planner see himself in 10 years? Surprisingly, he has an answer: "On a beach in Mexico."