05 May 09

Professor Andrew Carr is one of the Oxford University researchers have been elected as Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences

Four Oxford University researchers have been elected as Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences, recognising their excellence in medical science.

The new Fellows are Professor Andrew Carr, Professor Keith Channon, Professor Kim Nasmyth and Professor Ian Tomlinson.Academy Fellows are elected for outstanding contributions to the advancement of medical science, for innovative application of scientific knowledge and conspicuous service to healthcare.

Professor Sir John Bell, President of the Academy of Medical Sciences said, ‘Our new Fellows illustrate the wealth of experience and diversity of talent amongst the UK’s research community. Changes in global financial markets, and the promise of medical research to deliver both benefits to health and economic growth, mean it is more important than ever that these assets are recognised and supported.’

Professor Andrew Carr is the Nuffield Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Head of the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences. He also directs the NIHR (National Institutes of Health Research) Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Unit, a partnership between the University of Oxford and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre that aims to take scientific breakthroughs out of the laboratory and into hospital clinics. His research interests are in tissue engineering, stem cells, and in large-scale surgical trials.

Professor Keith Channon is Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, Honorary Consultant Cardiologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital, and director of the Oxford comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre (OxBRC), a partnership between the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals and the University of Oxford. Professor Channon undertakes a high volume of complex coronary interventions and stent procedures. His clinical research in the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine and the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, includes the evaluation of new stents, outcomes from coronary intervention and novel treatments including gene therapy in patients undergoing heart bypass operations. He also runs a basic science research group that is interested in the biology of atherosclerosis (the hardening of arteries).

Professor Kim Nasmyth is the Head of the Department of Biochemistry and holds the position of the Whitley Chair. His scientific work has addressed how genes are turned on and off during development, how DNA replication is controlled, and how chromosomes are segregated during cell division. It has been recognized by several awards, including most recently the Gairdner International Award (2007) for discoveries pinpointing the novel mechanisms in cell division that are essential to life. He is a fellow of the Royal Society, a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  

Professor Ian Tomlinson is Professor of Molecular and Population Genetics at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics and an Honorary Consultant in Clinical Genetics at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals. His research focuses on identifying genes that predispose people to cancer, especially colorectal cancer, and working out how those genetic changes have their effects. Professor Tomlinson is also interested in the relative roles of selection and genomic instability in causing tumours to grow, and in applying this work to new molecular diagnostics.