Sir Paul Nurse to head UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation
15 July 2010
UKCMRI has been founded by four of the UK's largest and most successful scientific and academic institutions: the Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK, the Wellcome Trust and University College London. It will carry out research of the highest quality using the latest technology to advance understanding of human health and disease. The project represents a substantial investment from charity and public funders in the future growth of one of the UK's leading sectors.
Sir Paul Nurse said: "I am honoured to have the opportunity to head UKCMRI as it takes shape as one of the foremost biomedical research institutes in the world. This is a time of extraordinary opportunity in our quest to understand the causes of health and disease. UKCMRI will have a key role in developing our understanding and ability to tackle many of the most significant diseases that affect people and their families."
A Nobel Prize-winning biologist, Sir Paul has been elected the next President of the Royal Society. He is currently President of the Rockefeller University, New York, which he joined in 2003.
Before moving to the USA, Sir Paul spent more than three decades working in the UK, where he was born. He was Director General of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund and played a major role in its merger with the Cancer Research Campaign, forming Cancer Research UK - which he went on to lead as Chief Executive.
His research focuses on controls of cell division and cell shape in yeast. It led to the identification of cyclin-dependent kinases as the key molecules that regulate the process by which cells make copies of themselves, a discovery that is important for understanding growth, development and cancer.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which he shared with Tim Hunt and Lee Hartwell, in 2001 and was honoured with a knighthood for services to cancer research and cell biology in 1999.
Sir Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust, said: "Paul is an outstanding and inspirational research leader with exactly the vision and experience needed to position UKCMRI as a world-class centre for research. He will be crucial to realising the Centre's focus on turning fundamental discoveries about health and disease into new diagnostic, preventative and therapeutic strategies that directly benefit patients."
Image: Sir Paul Nurse
