Institute Scientific Advisory Board
The Institute Scientific Advisory Board (iSAB) provides independent scientific support, advice and challenge to the Institute’s Director. Members of the iSAB are experienced and internationally recognised scientists and are chosen due to their respective fields of expertise to represent different aspects of Institute’s research activities. They provide the Director and senior management with an external perspective and comment on the Institute’s ability to deliver its mission and maintain scientific excellence.
Members of the Scientific Advisory Board
Professor David Altshuler
David Altshuler is Chair of the iSAB. He is Executive Vice President, Global Research and Chief Scientific Officer at Vertex Pharmaceuticals and leads efforts aimed at discovering new medicines for the treatment of serious disease. Before joining Vertex in 2015, he was one of the founding members of the Broad Institute of Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he was Deputy Director and Chief Academic Officer as well as Director of Medical and Population Genetics. He was also Professor of Genetics and of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, professor of Biology at MIT (adjunct), and a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. His research interests are focused on human genetic variation and its application to disease.
Professor Sir Paul Nurse
Paul Nurse is the President of the Royal Society. He took up the post to start his five year term on 1 December 2010. Paul was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries of protein molecules that control the division (duplication) of cells in the cell cycle.
Paul is a geneticist who works on what controls the division and shape of cells. He was Professor of Microbiology at the University of Oxford, CEO of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund and Cancer Research UK and President of Rockefeller University New York. He is currently Director and Chief Executive of the Francis Crick Institute.
Professor Wendy Bickmore
Wendy Bickmore is Director of the MRC Human Genetics Unit, part of the MRC Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. After an undergraduate degree in Biochemistry at Oxford, she obtained her PhD at Edinburgh University. During postdoctoral training, she became fascinated by the structure and organization of chromosomes in the nucleus and as an independent fellow of the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine (1991-1996) she went on to show that different human chromosomes have preferred positions in the nucleus, related to their gene content. As an MRC group leader she then investigated how individual genes are organized and packaged in the nucleus and how they move in the cell cycle and during development. Current research in Wendy Bickmore’s laboratory focuses on how the spatial organization of the nucleus influences genome function in development and disease. Wendy is an EMBO member and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the Academy of Medical Sciences. She is an editor on many journals including PLoS Genetics and Cell and is the President-Elect of the Genetics Society.
Professor Brendan Crabb
Professor Brendan Crabb AC is a molecular biologist and infectious disease researcher based in Melbourne Australia. He has been the Director and CEO of the Burnet Institute since 2008 and serves as Chair of the Australian Global Health Alliance and the Pacific Friends of Global Health. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, and of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. His interest is to use science and innovation to improve the health of all peoples, especially to contribute to a more equitable Australia, local region and lower income world.
