New Wellcome Trust Governor

The Wellcome Trust is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz FRCP FMedSci as a Governor of the Trust with effect from January 1, 2006.

Professor Borysiewicz FRCP, 54, is Deputy Rector of Imperial College London, having joined the College in 2001 as Principal of the Faculty of Medicine.Previously he was Professor of Medicine and Head of the Department of Medicine at the University of Wales, Cardiff.

Professor Borysiewicz is a physician specialising in viral immunology, infectious diseases, cell mediated immunity, virus associated malignancy and vaccine development.He has published extensively on immunology and pathogenesis of virus infection, and viral induced cancer.

He is the author of reports for the World Health Organisation, the Medical Research Council and the Department of Health.He has also chaired the Department of Health research advisory committee collating research on Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.He was knighted in the New Year’s honours list 2001.

In his current role at Imperial, Professor Borysiewicz has been responsible for the overall academic and scientific direction of the College, particularly the development of inter disciplinary research between Engineering, Physical Sciences and Biomedicine.

Sir Dominic Cadbury, Chairman of the Governors of The Wellcome Trust, said, “I am delighted that Professor Borysiewicz has agreed tojoin our board.We were seeking to appoint a clinician with a broad understanding of the scientific environment and its relationship to strategy, and he fits the bill extremely well.”

Professor Borysiewicz said, “The Wellcome Trust is a major force for good in the biomedical sciences both in the UK and internationally.I am delighted to have been invited to join the Board of Governors and look forward to contributing to the Trust’s future success.”

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 it currently spends more than £400m p.a.

Media Enquiries: Wellcome Trust Media Office:

0207 611 8866.