Scientific Advisory Board
The Board advises the Trust regarding its scientific direction and focus. It currently has six members:
Professor Terry Cook FRCPath FMedSci, Professor of Renal Pathology at Imperial College London, UK, and Consultant Renal Pathologist to the West London Renal and Transplant Centre, London, UK. Professor Cook advises several organisations, including the Wellcome Trust, the International Society of Nephrology and the Renal Association.
Professor Dian Donnai CBE, Professor of Medical Genetics at the University of Manchester, UK, Clinical Head of Division of St Mary’s Hospital and Consultant in the North West Regional Genetics Service. Professor Donnai’s work focuses on childhood syndromes involving structural malformations and learning disability. Professor Donnai has been Consultant Adviser in Genetics to the Chief Medical Officer for England, has served on the UK Government Genetics and Insurance Committee, and is President Elect of the European Society for Human Genetics.
Professor Andrew Hopkins D.Phil. FRCS, Professor of Medicinal Informatics, and holder of the Scottish Universities Life Science Alliance Chair for Translational Biology, Dundee Univerisity, UK. Professor Hopkins’ work focuses on drug discovery, having spent several years at Pfizer, and currently consults or advises for several organisations, including the World Health Organisation, the OECD and St Jude’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee.
Professor Eamonn Maher MD FRCP FMedSci, Professor of Medical Genetics at Birmingham University, UK. Professor Maher work focuses on human genetic disorders. Current research interests include inherited and non-inherited kidney cancers, including VHL and BHD syndrome.
Dr Laura Schmidt, staff scientist at the National Cancer Institute-Frederick, NIH, USA. Dr Schmidt’s research focuses on identifiying new genes involved in familial renal cancer. Dr Schmidt was part of the teams that cloned the VHL tumor suppressor gene, and that identified mutations in folliculin, the gene mutated in BHD syndrome.
Dr Maurice van Steensel MD PhD, dermatologist at Maastricht University Center for Molecular Dermatology, University Hospital Maastricht, The Netherlands. Dr van Steensel works on congenital dermatological disorders. He has described several novel mutations in folliculin.
Report of the Board’s third meeting, held on 16th of November 2009, here.
Report of the Board’s second meeting, held on 3rd of September 2008, here.
Report of the Board’s first meeting, held on 8th of May 2008, here.