Dr. St George-Hyslop is a university professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Neurology, and director, Center for Research in Neurodegenerative Disease, University of Toronto. He received his M.D. from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, and an F.R.C.P.(C) in internal medicine and in neurology from the Royal College of Physicians of Canada. He conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Toronto and at Harvard Medical School. Dr. St George-Hyslop was appointed as an instructor in neurology and genetics at Harvard University and was assistant physician in the Department of Neurology and the Department of Genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital before assuming his current position at the University of Toronto, where, since 2003, he has held the rank of university professor. His honors include the Francis A. McNaughton Prize from the Canadian Neurologic Society and the Award for Medical Research from the Metropolitan Life Foundation. He was selected as a Medical Research Council of Canada (Canadian Institutes of Health Research) Scholar in 1991 and as Distinguished Scientist in 2000. He received the Gold Medal in Medicine from the Royal College of Physicians of Canada in 1994 and the Michael Smith Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research in 1997. In 1995, he became a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and he is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2004 he was awarded the Oon Prize in Medicine from the University of Cambridge, in 2007 he was elected as a foreign member to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, and in 2009 he was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in the United Kingdom.

Peter St George-Hyslop's research focuses on the molecular mechanisms that cause neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease and, in particular, the mechanisms by which the presenilin protein complex generates a neurotoxic peptide that plays a central role in this disease. This knowledge has utility both in the design of potential therapeutics and in understanding the mechanism of neurodegeneration in other neurodegenerative diseases.