International Scientific Advisory Board Inaugural Meeting October 23, 2008 The first inaugural meeting of the GRE International Scientific Advisory Board (ISAB) was held on the 20-21 October this year. An important feature of the Centre has been to set up this Board, which is entrusted with the task of advising the Centre on research, funding and strategies for growth, while also reporting back to the Wellcome Trust on the Centre’s progress. “It’s only been a year since we were awarded Centre status,” said Director Angus Lamond, “But we have already made so many advances in the plans we have for the Centre, that we thought this was the ideal time for the Scientific Advisory Board to visit. We have had very useful feedback on our progress thus far as well as advice on a cohesive approach to managing growth in the future.” The visit itself has certainly served to bring the eleven research groups together as a centre. Post-docs and PhD students held a poster session and representatives from each lab participated in informal discussions with members of the ISAB. Four members of the ISAB attended the symposium Frank Grosveld, Iain Mattaj, Nick Hastie and Ron Laskey. “All members of the SAB are leaders in their field of research,” said Mike Ferguson, Dean of the School of Research at the College where the Centre is located, “Such an impressive group, by their very involvement, illustrate the high level of research and collaboration going on at the Centre.” All four of them presented lectures at the Symposium as well as Prof. Sir Philip Cohen of the MRC-PPU and SCILLS and Prof. Julie Frearson of the Drug Discovery Unit. Angus Lamond gave an introductory talk describing the history of the Centre and a research overview. This was followed by the premier of Sharing Science, the half-hour documentary depicting the lives, inspirations and collaborations that underpin research at the Centre. The film was made possible by the Centre grant from the Wellcome Trust.
