Conference attracts top international scientists
29 April 2002
More than 50 leading international scientists will be attending a conference in London next week organised by the biomedical research charity, the Wellcome Trust. It will bring together for the first time the Trust's International Senior Research Fellows.
The conference will take place over two days at the Royal College of Physicians (April 30th) and the Wellcome Trust, 183 Euston Road (May 1st).
Among the speakers will be : Dr. Lynn Morris, leading member of a South African team which has produced an AIDS vaccine; Professor Peter Goadsby, an Australian expert in the aetiology of migraines and other forms of severe head-ache ; and Dr. Chetan Chitnis, from New Delhi, who heads a group studying parasite-host cell interactions in malaria with the aim of producing a novel vaccine.
Professor Inder Verma, from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California, a member of the Trust's International Fellowship advisory committee will also be there to explain his pioneering work on gene therapy in cancer which involves the use of the AIDS virus as a potential vector.
The conference will also include (April 30th) a discussion by a Panel of experts on the topic of "Science without Frontiers-How to Pick Winners".
Those taking part will include : Lauritz Holm-Nielsen, principal education specialist at the World Bank, tropical diseases expert ; Dr. Peter Collins, Director of Science Policy at the Royal Society ; Professor Sergiy Komisarenko, former Ukrainian ambassador to the UK, now director of the Palladin Institute of Biochemistry in Kiev and Dr. Jill Conley who heads the International Research Scholars programme at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Maryland. The discussion will be chaired by Professor Wieland Gevers, Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Cape Town.
The Wellcome Trust's International Senior Research Fellowship awards began in 1984. Since then 87 grants totalling more than £30m have been made to researchers in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India. Their work spans the spectrum of biomedical science from very basic genetics and structural biology to more applied studies on malaria, AIDS, TB and cancer.
A recent survey has demonstrated the effectiveness of the scheme. All but one of the fellows has stayed in academic research and most have resisted the temptation to move to laboratories in the USA and Europe. Most of the fellows have been promoted as a result of their awards and are now leading researchers in their countries.
The Wellcome International Fellowships are considered to be amongst the most prestigious available. In Australia, where they have operated for nearly 20 years, they have raised the profile of biomedical research and have been instrumental in encouraging the government to spend more in this important area of science.
Dr Mary Phillips, manager of the Wellcome Trust's International Biomedical Programme, which operates the scheme, said : " The conference will give our senior fellows the opportunity to discuss their research and form important new global collaborations.
" In addition we want them to feel part of the Trust's international research effort and to maintain their links with the organisation at the end of their fellowships.
" We like to think we are contributing to the development of the next generation of research leaders world-wide."
Notes to editors
• The Wellcome Trust is an independent research-funding charity, established in 1936 under the will of tropical medicine pioneer Sir Henry Wellcome. The Trust's mission is to promote research with the aim of improving human and animal health and currently spends £600m a year in this area.
• It currently funds around 4,000 researchers in more than 40 countries and last year spent £70m on international programmes.
For further information please contact:
Barry Gardner,
Wellcome Trust Communications Department.
Tel: +44 (0)20 7611 7329
b.gardner@wellcome.ac.uk