Pat McGeer

Patrick Lucey "Pat" McGeer, OC, OBC, FRSC (born June 29, 1927), is a Canadian physician, professor and medical researcher. He is regarded as a leading authority on the causes and prevention of Alzheimer's disease and is the principal author of the inflammatory hypothesis of the disease, which holds that Alzheimer's is an inflammation of the cortex. Formerly, he was a Canadian basketball player who competed in the 1948 Summer Olympics, a politician who represented the constituency of Vancouver-Point Grey in the British Columbia legislature from 1962 to 1986, and a member of the British Columbia cabinet from 1976 to 1986. In 1995, he and his wife Edith were inducted as Officers of the Order of Canada. In 2002 they were jointly inducted as Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada, and in 2005 they were jointly inducted into the Order of British Columbia.

Aurin Biotech

In August 2012, McGeer and his wife Edith founded Aurin Biotech Inc., following indications that the Aurintricarboxylic acid (ATA) complex inhibit activation of the Complement system. Since activation of the complement system is implicated in a number of diseases (see Complement system#Role in Disease), these indications suggested that ATA could be an effective treatment for these diseases. Aurin was founded to explore the efficacy of using ATA and related compounds in the treatment of these diseases. The particular focus is on diseases that are caused or exacerbated by aberrant complement activation. Low molecular weight components of the aurintricarboxylic acid complex have been shown to be non-toxic and orally effective.