Szyf is a retired professor of pharmacology who held a Glaxo Smith Kline and James McGill Chair in
Pharmacology at McGill University in Montreal Canada and is currently a fellow of the Royal Society of
Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. Szyf has pioneered research in DNA methylation
for the last three decades and published more than 330 papers on the biological role of DNA
methylation that span a broad spectrum from basic mechanisms to cancer diagnostics and therapeutics,
as well as behavior, chronic pain and addiction. Szyf pioneered epigenetic pharmacology in cancer and
as well as the field of behavioral epigenetics. Szyf studies provide a molecular link between environment
and genes and between nurture and nature that had a wide impact on the social sciences and
psychiatry. Szyf founded the first Pharma in the world dedicated to developing DNA methylation drugs
Methylgene Inc in 1994. Szyf founded HKG epiTherapeutics Ltd.(currently called epiMedTech Global) In
2016, which develops a novel class of epigenetic diagnostic markers for early detection of cancer and
other diseases and is the Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Executive Officer of the company.