Leading scientific figures appointed as Wellcome Trust governors

6 December 2007

The Wellcome Trust, the UK's largest medical research charity, today announces the appointment of three leading figures from the scientific world to its Board of Governors. Joining the Board in January 2008 will be Professor Kay Davies and Professor Christopher Fairburn from the University of Oxford, and Professor Peter Rigby, Chief Executive of The Institute of Cancer Research, London.

The Wellcome Trust funds innovative biomedical research, in the UK and internationally. Over the past year, it has spent over £500 million to support the brightest scientists with the best ideas. Its activities are overseen by the Board of Governors, distinguished figures from the worlds of science, medicine, law, business and public life.

Professor Kay Davies, Dr Lee's Professor of Anatomy at the University of Oxford, is a molecular neurogeneticist, collaborating widely in the field of neuroscience. Her current research programme at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Functional Genetics Unit, which she directs, focuses on muscular dystrophy and movement/behavioural disorders. Professor Davies has been a member of the MRC Council since 2002 and will step down at the end of this year.

She has considerable experience of biotechnology companies as a conduit for translating the results of experimental science into new therapeutics and diagnostics. Professor Davies co-founded one biotechnology company (Summit plc, formerly VASTox plc) and is a director of one other company. She is a member of the Technology Transfer Challenge Committee at the Wellcome Trust.

Professor Christopher Fairburn is a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow at the University of Oxford's Department of Psychiatry. Professor Fairburn's research has been supported by the Wellcome Trust since 1984. He is a member of the Wellcome Trust's Neuroscience and Mental Health Committee.

Professor Fairburn has pursued an integrated programme of research focusing on the classification, diagnosis, origin and characteristics of severe eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. In addition, his research has had a major impact on how these disorders are treated both nationally and internationally, and it has been recognised by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

Professor Peter Rigby has been Chief Executive of The Institute of Cancer Research, London since 1999. He is Professor of Developmental Biology at the University of London and works on the regulation of gene expression during the development of the embryo.

Professor Rigby has been a member of MRC, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Cancer Research UK and other research charity committees, and has advised numerous biotechnology companies. He is a Non-Executive Director of the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. He currently chairs the Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow Interview Committee. He was European editor of 'Cell' for many years.

"We are delighted to welcome our new Governors," says Sir William Castell, Chairman of the Wellcome Trust. "The broad base of experience that they represent - including the management of science, basic research, clinical innovation and medical practice - will provide a valuable contribution to furthering the Trust's aims of understanding and improving human and animal health.

"In the meantime, we are sorry to lose prematurely two governors. Sir Leszek Borysiewicz has left to become Chief Executive of the MRC, while Professor Ronald Plasterk has been appointed Minister of Education, Culture and Science in the Dutch Cabinet."

Contact

Craig Brierley
Media Officer
Wellcome Trust
T 020 7611 7329
E c.brierley@wellcome.ac.uk

Notes for editors

The Wellcome Trust is the largest charity in the UK. It funds innovative biomedical research, in the UK and internationally, spending around £500 million each year to support the brightest scientists with the best ideas. The Wellcome Trust supports public debate about biomedical research and its impact on health and wellbeing.