Sir Paul Nurse to head up UKCMRI

The UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation has appointed Sir Paul Nurse as its first director and chief executive.

A Nobel Prize-winning biologist, Sir Paul will take up his new role on 1 January 2011.

He said: “I am honoured to have the opportunity to head UKCMRI as it takes shape as one of the foremost biomedical research institutes in the world. This is a time of extraordinary opportunity in our quest to understand the causes of health and disease.

“UKCMRI will have a key role in developing our understanding and ability to tackle many of the most significant diseases that affect people and their families.”

He is currently president of the Rockefeller University, New York, which he joined in 2003, and has been elected the next president of the Royal Society.

Before moving to the United States, Sir Paul spent more than three decades working in the UK, where he was born. He was director general of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) and played a major role in the merger of ICRF with the Cancer Research Campaign, which together formed Cancer Research UK and which he went on to lead as chief executive.

UKCMRI is a collaboration between four of the UK’s largest and most successful scientific and academic institutions: the Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK, University College London and the Wellcome Trust.

Based at Somers Town alongside St Pancras International, once operational it will use the latest research technology to advance understanding of human health and disease.