Professor Lewis served as Associate Vice-President, Research and Innovation specializing in Global Research Partnerships from January 2010 through March 2016. He returned to his research activities in April 2016. An accomplished biochemist, Professor Lewis has been an academic leader, faculty member and researcher at U of T since 1974. Prior to joining the Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation, Professor Lewis served as Vice-Dean, Research and International Relations in the Faculty of Medicine for seven years. He served as Chair of the U of T Department of Biochemistry from 1991-2001. His research interests include neurodegeneration; the structure and function of chromosomes with specific reference to gene regulation; and protein folding.

Association with the Origin Recognition Complex suggests a novel role for histone acetyltransferase Hat1p/Hat2p. Suter B, Pogoutse O, Guo X, Krogan NJ, Lewis P, Greenblatt JF, Rine J, Emili A. BMC Biol. 2007 Sep 19;5(1):38 Use of substrate analogs and mutagenesis to study substrate binding and catalysis in the SIR2 family of NAD-dependent protein deacetylases. Khan, A. Lewis, P.N. J Biol Chem. 2006 Apr 28;281:11702-1 Unstructured conformations are a substrate requirement for the Sir2 family of NAD-dependent protein deacetylases. Khan, A. Lewis, P.N. J Biol Chem. 2005. 280(43):36073-8