New Governor

Professor Richard Hynes (pictured above), Daniel K Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Cancer Research, has been appointed a Governor of the Wellcome Trust.

Professor Hynes, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, is an authority on the molecular basis of cell adhesion.

Director commitment

Dr Mark Walport will continue as Director of the Wellcome Trust when his current contract expires in 2008. His new contract will last until 2013.

Deputy Chairman

Professor Adrian Bird has been appointed new Deputy Chairman of the Wellcome Trust's Board of Governors, for a three-year term from 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2010. His appointment as a Governor will also be extended from 1 October 2007 to 31 March 2010.

Professor Bird became a Governor in October 2000. He has held the Buchanan Chair of Genetics at the University of Edinburgh since 1990, and he is Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology at the University of Edinburgh. His interests are the structure and function of the mammalian genome, and in particular the role of DNA methylation.