{"entity":{"id":"tak-mak","kind":"person","name":"Tak W. Mak","aka":[],"tldr":"Cloned the T-cell receptor and co-discovered CTLA-4's brake function, foundations of modern immunotherapy.","summary":"Tak W. Mak is a Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and University Professor at the University of Toronto. He is an immunologist known for cloning the human T-cell receptor beta chain in 1984 and for generating the CTLA-4 knockout mouse that revealed the molecule's inhibitory role, foundations of modern immunotherapy. His selected paper reports lymphoproliferative disorders with early lethality in mice deficient in Ctla-4. He now studies cancer metabolism and IDH mutations alongside his continuing interest in immune checkpoints.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"UHN profile","url":"https://www.uhnresearch.ca/researcher/tak-w-mak"},{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Mak%20TW%5BAuthor%5D"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":["checkpoint-inhibitor"],"targets":["ctla4","idh"],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":["princess-margaret"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"role":"Senior Scientist, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre; University Professor, University of Toronto","institutionId":"princess-margaret","specialisms":["T-cell receptor","Immunology","Cancer metabolism","IDH"],"profiles":[{"label":"UHN profile","url":"https://www.uhnresearch.ca/researcher/tak-w-mak"},{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Mak%20TW%5BAuthor%5D"}],"papers":[{"title":"Lymphoproliferative disorders with early lethality in mice deficient in Ctla-4","journal":"Science","year":1995,"url":"https://doi.org/10.1126/science.270.5238.985","doi":"10.1126/science.270.5238.985"}],"orcid":"0000-0002-0459-4112"},"route":"/people/tak-mak/","neighbours":{"technology":[{"id":"checkpoint-inhibitor","kind":"technology","name":"Immune checkpoint inhibitors","route":"/technologies/checkpoint-inhibitor/"}],"target":[{"id":"ctla4","kind":"target","name":"CTLA-4","route":"/targets/ctla4/"},{"id":"idh","kind":"target","name":"IDH1 / IDH2","route":"/targets/idh/"}],"institution":[{"id":"princess-margaret","kind":"institution","name":"Princess Margaret Cancer Centre","route":"/institutions/princess-margaret/"}]}}