About
Henry Solomon Wellcome
- Freemason.
- Creates holding company, The Wellcome Foundation Limited (1924).
- Knight Commander of the British Empire and Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (1932).
- Collection of around 1.5 million books and objects relating to history and medicine; Artefacts specific to medicine and healing, including large quantities of weapons, bales of fabric, furniture, ancient cooking implements, porcelain, glassware, statues, coins, medals, objets d'art and even torture instruments; Sample of the hair of various historical figures, including George Washington, George III, Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington.
- Funded excavations at Jebel Moya, south of Khartoum, Sudan, hiring 4000 people to excavate (1911-1914).
- Abiding interest in Native American culture, through financial support and political lobbying helped establish a model Christian community amongst the Tsimshean people in British Columbia and establish an alternative site in Alaska.
About
- Established in 1936 as an independent charity funding research to improve human and animal health.
- UK's largest non-governmental source of funds for biomedical research with an endowment of around £13 billion.
- Over £600 million a year on research to improve human and animal health.
- On 2008 committed to increasing its funding for research and large scale biomedical projects to almost £4 billion over the next 5 years.
Wellcome Trust Centres
- Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh.
- Cell-Matrix Research, University of Manchester.
- Molecular Parasitology, University of Glasgow.
- Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge.
- Human Genetics, University of Oxford.
- History of Medicine / Neuroimaging, University College London.
- Stem Cell Research, University of Cambridge.
- Gene Regulation and Expression, University of Dundee.
Genome Campus and Sanger Institute
- 1992: Establishment of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, funded by the Wellcome Trust and the UK's Medical Research Council, for sequencing of the human genome as part of a worldwide partnership, the Human Genome Project.
- 1993: Establishment of the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus in the village of Hinxton, Cambridgeshire. Includes the Wellcome Trust Conference Centre and the European Bioinformatics Institute.
UK Biobank
- Funded by the U.K. Department of Health, the Medical Research Council, the Scottish Executive, and the Wellcome Trust.
- The main study began in April 2007 and by the end of that year 50,000 people had taken part. 100,000 in April 2008, 200,000 in October 2008 and 300,000 in May 2009.
- Up to 500,000 volunteers aged 40-69 will be involved, contributing DNA samples, lifestyle details and medical information to create a national database of unprecedented size. The project will follow the health of these volunteers for up to 30 years.
Diamond Light Source
- Synchrotron research facility located in Oxfordshire (UK), at a cost of £260m.
- Since January 2007 and formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 19 October 2007.
- Wellcome Trust: 14% stake ; The Science and Technology Facilities Council (UK Government): 86%.
- Used to probe the structure and properties of many types of materials and complex structures like proteins.
- When opened, 7 experimental stations, or beamlines, came online: Extreme conditions beamline for studying materials under intense temperatures and pressures; Materials and magnetism beamline, set up to probe electronic and magnetic materials at the atomic level; 3 macromolecular crystallography beamlines, for decoding the structure of complex biological samples, such as proteins; Microfocus spectroscopy beamline, able to map the chemical make up of complex materials, such as moon rocks and geological samples; Nanoscience beamline, capable of imaging structures and devices at the scale of a few millionths of a millimetre.
- As of March 2009 there are 13 beamlines in operation and more under construction.
- On September 2007, scientists from the University of Cardiff, found that the Diamond synchrotron could be used to discover hidden content of ancient documents by illumination without opening them (penetrating layers of parchment).
Structural Genomics Consortium
- Formed in 2004 to determine the 3 dimensional structures of proteins of medical relevance, and place them in the Protein Data Bank without restriction.
- Laboratories at the University of Oxford, University of Toronto, Canada, and the Karolinska Institute, Sweden.
- Epigenetics: Aims to develop "chemical probes", small molecules that can stimulate or block the activity of a protein, specifically designed to affect the activity of proteins involved in epigenetic control. Partnerships with GSK, the National Institutes of Health Chemical Genomics Center in Bethesda, USA, and the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Oxford.
- Funding from the Wellcome Trust, GSK, Novartis, Merck, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Karolinska Institutet, the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Ontario Genomics Institute, Genome Canada, VINNOVA (The Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems).
- Partnerships with the European Bioinformatics Institute, the Argonne Advanced Photon Source, the Swiss Light Source, MolSoft LLC & Scripps Research Institute, SPiT (Structural Proteomics in Toronto), and Prof. Hartmut Oschkinat at FMP Berlin.
Kenya Programme
- Part of the Kenya Medical Research Institute Centre for Geographic Medicine Research.
- Research studies in Kilifi focus on clinical, basic and epidemiological aspects of malaria and other diseases of childhood, while work in Nairobi targets the pharmacology and therapeutics of anti-malarial drugs, malaria epidemiology, control and health policy.
- Direct collaborative links with the University of Oxford, the Institute of Child Health (London), Liverpool University and School of Tropical Medicine and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Malawi Programme
- Based in Blantyre, Malawi, at Wellcome Trust-funded research laboratories, opened on January 1999, and adjacent to the Queen Elizabeth Central Teaching Hospital and the University of Malawi College of Medicine.
- Investigates health problems of local and regional significance such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, anaemia, tuberculosis and other bacterial and viral infections.
- Collaborative links with the University of Liverpool and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Gates Malaria Partnership.
Thailand Programme
- Main laboratories and offices in the Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, and research sites across Thailand in Mae Sot (Shoklo Malaria Research Unit), Ubon Ratchatani, Udon Thani and also in Vientiane Lao PDR.
- Focus on clinical, basic and epidemiological aspects of malaria, melioidosis, leptospirosis and fungal diseases.
- Study of malaria, especially the use of artemisinin-based therapies, the biology of resistant malaria parasites, the mechanisms of antimalarial resistance and the treatment of malaria in pregnant women.
- Collaboration with Mahosot Hospital in Vientiane, Laos.
- Direct collaborative links with the University of Oxford, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, St George's Hospital Medical School and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Vietnam Programme
- Malaria, dengue, typhoid, tetanus, tuberculosis, meningitis and other CNS infections.
- Closely integrated within the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, a tertiary referral centre for Vietnam, in Ho Chi Ming City, and the National Institute of Infectious and Tropical Diseases in Hanoi.
- Direct collaborative links with the University of Oxford, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, St George's Hospital Medical School and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
South Africa
- The Africa Centre is embedded in the University of KwaZulu-Natal with academic and strategic support also provided by the South African Medical Research Council.
- The Centre tackles the most pressing population and reproductive health issues in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly HIV/AIDS, to provide vital data to understand diseases in a rural population.
Other Funding Projects
- Development of the anti-malarial drug artemisinin.
- Building of the Wellcome Wing at the Science Museum.
- Establishing the national network of Science Learning Centres.
- Pioneering cognitive behavioural therapies for psychological disorders.
- Commissioning a U.K. wide primary school plant science learning initiative, The Great Plant Hunt.
William Castell
Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order
- Chairman since May 2006.
- President and Chief Executive Officer of GE Healthcare
- Vice-Chairman of the General Electric Company, remains as a non-executive director of General Electric.
- Chief Executive of Amersham plc for 15 years.
- Various positions in Wellcome Pharmaceutical Company (owned by Wellcome Trust).
- Non-executive director of BP plc (formerly British Petroleum) in July 2006.
- Member of the Prime Minister's Business Council.
- Non-executive director of the National Bureau of Asian Research.
- Honorary Fellow of Green College, University of Oxford.
- Honorary Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
- Council member of the UK Medical Research Council (2001-2004)
- Chairman of the Prince's Trust (1998-2003).
Adrian P. Bird
Commander of the British Empire
Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
- Governor in October 2000 and Deputy Chairman since April 2007.
- Trustee and Scientific Advisory Board of Rett Syndrome Research Trust.
- Buchanan Chair of Genetics at the University of Edinburgh since 1990.
- Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology at the University of Edinburgh.
- Research interests in the structure and function of the mammalian genome and in particular the role of DNA methylation.
- Member of the editorial board of the journal "Molecular Cell".
- Trustee of the Kirkhouse Trust and of the Rett Syndrome Research Trust.
Kay Elizabeth Partridge (1951-)
Dame Commander of the British Empire
Commander of the British Empire
Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences
Fellow of the Royal Society
- Governor since January 2008.
- Dr Lee's Professor of Anatomy at the University of Oxford.
- Director of the Medical Research Council functional genetics unit, and the Oxford Centre for Gene Function.
- Honorary Fellow of Somerville College, University of Oxford.
- Senior Member of Oxford University Scientific Society.
- Research interests cover the molecular analysis of neuromuscular and neurological disease, particularly Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
- Founding and Executive Editor of the journal "Human Molecular Genetics".
- Founding fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
- Educated at the Gig Mill School, Stourbridge County High School for Girls, Somerville College, University of Oxford and Wolfson College, Oxford.
Christopher G. Fairburn
Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists
Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences
- Governor since January 2008.
- Professor of Psychiatry at University of Oxford.
- Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Healthcare Trust.
- Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow at the University of Oxford's Department of Psychiatry since 1984.
- Twice Former Fellow at Stanford's Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.
- Research focusing on the classification, origins, characteristics and treatment of severe eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.
- Awarded Wellcome Senior Lectureship (1984) and Wellcome Principal Research Fellowship (1996).
Richard Hynes
Fellow of the Royal Society
- Board of Governors since January 2007.
- Daniel K Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research and Head of the Biology Department and Director of the Center for Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S.
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
- Research concerned with understanding the molecular basis of cell adhesion and its involvement in cell behaviour, including contributions to human disease.
- BA and MA in biochemistry from the University of Cambridge.
- PhD in biology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1971).
- Postdoctoral work at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories in London
- Founding faculty member of the Center for Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
- Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine.
Roderick Kent
- Board of Governors and Investment Committee since February 2008.
- Currently Chairman of the BT Pension Scheme Trustees and Chairman of Grosvenor Limited, the private property company.
- Managing Director of Close Brothers, the Merchant Bank, for 28 years until 2002.
- Non-executive Director and then Chairman of M&G Group from 1995 to 1999.
- Senior Independent Director of Whitbread plc (2002-2007).
- Chairman of Bradford & Bingley plc (2002-2008).
- Trustee of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation for several years.
Elizabeth Lydia "Eliza" Manningham-Buller (1948-)
Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath
- Governor since August 2008.
- Educated at Northampton High School and Benenden School.
- Teacher at Queen's Gate School, Kensington in London, having read English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford (1971-1974).
- Security Service (1974-2007).
- Deputy Director-General (1997-2002); Director-General (2002-2007) of the MI5.
- Life Peer (2008), sitting on the cross benches in the House of Lords.
- Council of Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine (2009).
- Baroness Manningham-Buller (2008-), 5 children.
- Father: Reginald Edward Manningham-Buller, 1st Viscount Dilhorne, Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, Queen's Counsel, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (1962-1964).
Peter W J Rigby
- Board of Governors since January 2008.
- Chief Executive of The Institute of Cancer Research, London, since 1999.
- Professor of Developmental Biology at the University of London working on the regulation of gene expression during the development of the embryo.
- Member of the Medical Research Council, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and Cancer Research U.K.
- Non-Executive Director of the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust.
- European editor of "Cell" for many years.
Peter Smith
Commander of the British Empire
Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences
- Board of Governors since June 2004.
- Professor of Tropical Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
- Chair of the UK Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (1996-2004).
- Council member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics since 2003.
- First-class honours degree in Applied Mathematics and DSc in Medical Statistics from City University.
- Research studies on cancers and tropical diseases, vaccine and other intervention studies against malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis and leishmaniasis.
- Member of the Partnership Board of the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership.
Edward Walker-Arnott
- Governor since October 2000.
- Senior Partner and currently consultant at the international law firm Herbert Smith.
- Member of the Cork Committee.
- One of the first three outsiders nominated by the Bank of England to sit on the governing body of the Lloyds insurance market.
- In June 1997 conducted an independent review for the Arts Council of England of the Council's relations with the Royal Opera House.
- 1 of 2 outsiders on the 5 person National Trust Governance Working Group that proposed changes to the constitution of the National Trust (2002-2003).
- Vice Chairman of the Board of the Southbank Centre.
- Member of the Board of the Royal National Theatre, where chaired the finance committee (2000-2008).
- Visiting Professor at University College London.
Former Members
- Roy M. Anderson: Governor (1991-2000).
Executive Board
- Mark Walport, Chief Executive, Director since June 2003: Professor of Medicine and Head of the Division of Medicine at Imperial College London, where led a research team focused on the immunology and genetics of rheumatic diseases. Appointed a member of the Council for Science and Technology in 2004.
- Ted Bianco, Director of Technology Transfer since 2002: Professor of Parasitology at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine where led a research group working on the immunobiology of filarial infections.
- Simon Jeffreys, Chief Financial Officer since March 2009: Chief Administrative Officer for Fidelity International. Global leader of the PricewaterhouseCoopers investment management.
- Clare Matterson, Director on Medicine, Society and History since 1998: Previously at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
- Alan Schafer, Head of Molecular and Physiological Sciences since June 2007: Previously at GlaxoSmithKline. Adjunct Professor at Tanaka Business School, Imperial College London.
Wellcome Library
Archives and Manuscripts
- The most important specialist manuscript and archival collection in Britain for the history of medicine.
- Many European unpublished records dating from antiquity to the 20th century. Material in some 25 different languages.
Asian Collection
- Comprises some 12000 manuscripts and 4000 printed books in 43 different languages. Includes over 1000 manuscripts written on palm leaves, and others transcribed on silk, ivory, metal, bone, bamboo and tree bark. A medical prescription from ancient Egypt, written on papyrus (c.1100 BCE).
- Near East, Islamic: Arabic and Persian manuscripts and printed books, and a small collection of Ottoman manuscripts and Turkish books. Classical medicine, preserved, enlarged and commentated on throughout the Islamic world, stretching from Southern Spain to South and South-east Asia. The celebrated Persian manuscript Kitab-i viladat-i Iskandar dated AD 1411, is one of the world's finest examples extant of Timurid painting.
- Near East, non-Islamic: Hebrew manuscripts and early printed books, Armenian and Georgian manuscripts, Egyptian papyri with some Coptic material and Ethiopian and Syriac manuscripts. The Ethopian manuscripts relate to ethno-medicine, while the other collections are representative of many areas of human endeavour. The exceedingly rare Constantinople 1505 Hebrew edition of the Pentatench.
6000 Sanskrit manuscripts contain many exemplars of outstanding rarity including illuminated palm-leaf manuscripts dating from as early as the 11th century.
- South Asia: Over 2000 Jain manuscripts, the largest primary resource for Jainism outside the sub-continent. Both the Hindi and Panjabi collections are the largest preserved in the West and comprise many treasures. Some 500 hundred Sinhalese palm-leaf manuscripts with most of the Indo-Aryan languages of the sub-continent represented in manuscript or printed form. 2000 Tamil imprints in microfilm relating to medical history and allied topics from the collection held in the Rojah Muthiah Research Library in Madras.
- South-east Asia: The Burmese manuscript collection includes part of the life of the Buddha in panoramic illustration contained in the folding book (parabaik) format and many Buddhist texts in Pali as well as material relating to folk medicine and prescriptions. Thai collection of manuscripts, many of which relate to Buddhism and are beautifully illustrated. Texts concerning medicine, astrology, and divination, a large number of the Thai palm-leaf manuscripts originate from Central Thailand. The Hervey Malay collection comprises the record of various plants, ethnobiological information and customs relating to the area. The collection of Batak and Javanese manuscripts written on bamboo, bones, palm leaves and tree bark is the largest in the UK.
- Far East: The Chinese collection is rich in block-printed books relating to the early period of western medicine in China including several volumes of Chinese translations of western medical texts. Rich in traditional medical texts, acupuncture charts and divinatory literature along with important non-medical material such as tribute albums depicting and describing ethnic groups within the Chinese Empire. From Japan, both traditional medical texts as well as early western medical texts. Some of these are unique to Japan and among the Japanese translations of western medical texts is numbered the first edition of 1774 of the translation from Dutch of Johann Kulmus' anatomical work entitled Kitai Shinsho "a new work on anatomy". The Tibetan collection contains many manuscripts and xylographs as well as over 50 Thankas and banners preserved in the library's iconographic collection.
Rare Books Collection
- Approximately 60000 pre-1851 rare books including c.600 incunabula (books printed before 1501) and c.5000 books from the 16th century.
Medical Collection
- First edition of Darwin's "On the Origin of Species", various editions of Gray's anatomy, Mrs Beeton's "Book of Household Management", through advertisements for toothpaste, to the latest issue of the "Lancet" and current edition of the "British National Formulary".
- The most complete set of the British Medical Officer of Health Reports in the country, and equivalent foreign and colonial publications.
- Hundreds of thousands of medical monographs and textbooks, anatomical atlases, pharmacopoeias, etc.; 40000 pamphlets; 30000 theses; some 11000 serials, including clinical and scientific journals in print and electronic format, annual reports and popular newsletters; a considerable amount of grey literature such as governmental and other reports, publications of pressure groups and patient organisations; 20000 items of medical ephemera; patents; and a growing number of electronic journals, databases and web resources.
History of Medicine Collection
- Over 80000 volumes in many languages and from countries across the globe, published after 1850 up to the present day.
Medicine and Society Collection
- Extensive collection of printed and electronic resources on current biomedical topics, including Popular science, Consumer health, Biomedical science policy, Biomedical ethics, Science education, Public engagement with science.
Paintings, Prints and Drawings
- Over 100000 prints, drawings, paintings, photographs and other media, ranging in date from the 14th century to the present.
- The 1500 paintings include an altarpiece of a dream of miraculous transplantation performed by Saints Cosmas and Damian (Burgos, c.1495); a painting of St Elizabeth visiting a hospital by Adam Elsheimer (c.1598); and 50 Tibetan thankas. Photographs include John Thomson's original negatives of China, Cambodia, Thailand and Cyprus (c.1870). Prints include caricatures, portraits, records of the physical environment and sacred subjects. Drawings include works by artists as diverse as Michelangelo, the ethnographer Horatio Robley, and William Heath Robinson.
Moving Image and Sound Collection
- Over 2000 films/videos and more than 1500 audio cassettes/CDs relating to medicine, history of medicine, science, surgery and public health.
- New material is added to the collection on a weekly basis.