Scientific Advisory Board

Sir Tom Blundell FRS FMedSci

Tom Blundell is Director of Research and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge. In July 2009 he took up the post of Chair of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). His research is focused on structural biology and bioinformatics and their applications to drug discovery and medicine.

After research and teaching positions in Molecular Biophysics in Oxford and Biochemistry in Sussex Universities, he was appointed in 1976 Professor in Birkbeck College, University of London and in 1989 Honorary Director, Imperial Cancer Research Fund Unit of Structural Molecular Biology. He moved to Cambridge in 1996. Tom Blundell is a member of Academia Europaea, a Fellow of the Royal Society and Fellow of Academy of Medical Sciences. He has Honorary Doctorates from fifteen universities.

Tom Blundell has played an active role in national science policy. In the 1980s, he was a member of the advisory group to the Prime Minister (ACOST). He was Director General, Agricultural and Food Research Council (1991‑1994) and founding Chief Executive, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, BBSRC (1994-1996), Chairman of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (1998 to 2005) and President of the UK Biosciences Federation between 2004 and 2008. He has been non-executive Chairman of BBSRC since 1 July 2009. He was a Non-Executive Director of Celltech from 1996 to 2005 and has been involved in science advisory roles with Pfizer, UCB and SmithKline Beecham. He co-founded Astex Therapeutics which has oncology drugs in early stage clinical trials in USA and UK.

Professor Dirk Dressler

Dirk Dressler is Professor of Neurology and Head of the Movement Disorders Section at the Department of Neurology, Hannover Medical School, Germany. Dr. Dressler obtained his medical education at Georg-August University, Goettingen, Germany, Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen, Germany and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. After his postgraduate training at the National Hospital for Neurology and the Institute of Neurology, London, UK, Dr. Dressler became consultant neurologist and Associate Professor of Neurology at Rostock University, Germany. In 2008 he took up his current position.

Dr. Dressler is a pioneer of botulinum toxin therapy in Europe. He has authored more than 400 articles, books, book chapters and abstracts on dystonia, other movement disorders and botulinum toxin therapy. He received an honorary professorship from the University of Santiago de Chile for his contributions to the development of botulinum toxin therapy, and holds visiting professorships at the Universities of São Paulo, Brazil, and Monterrey, Mexico.

Dr Dressler is editor and reviewer of several international neurological journals. He is on the Board of Directors of WE MOVE (USA) and the advisory boards of the German Dystonia Society, Bundesverband Torticollis e.V. (Germany), Fundacion Dystonia (Chile), Associacao Brasileira de Portadores de Distonias (Brazil), and the National Spasmodic Torticollis Association (USA), as well as being a member of various international medical societies. He serves as project reviewer for The Wellcome Trust (UK) and the National Medical Research Council, Singapore.

Márta Korbonits MD, PhD

Márta Korbonits graduated in medicine in Budapest and worked in the Institute of Pathophysiology before starting her clinical training at the Internal Medicine Department of the Postgraduate Medical School, Budapest. She joined the Department of Endocrinology at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London in 1991 and started clinical and laboratory studies about the hypothalamic regulation of growth hormone release under the guidance of Prof. Ashley Grossman and Prof. Michael Besser and became particularly interested in growth hormone secretagogues. This work formed the basis of her University of London MD thesis. Subsequently she studied pituitary tumorigenesis for her PhD thesis. She received an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship in 2000 to study ghrelin physiology and genetics and turned her attention to appetite physiology and metabolism. She received funding from the MRC, Wellcome Trust, Diabetes UK, Royal Society, The Jules Thorn Foundation, as well as local funds from the CRC, JRB & RAB. She has supervised visiting fellows, PhD, MD and BmedSci students and enjoys undergraduate teaching.

She has received numerous prizes, most recently the Young Investigator Award of the Pituitary Society, and was awarded a Personal Chair as Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism in 2008. She is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, the Journal of Neuroendocrinology and the Journal of Endocrinology. She is the Program Secretary of the Society for Endocrinology 2009-2012 and serves as a member of the Board of the Pituitary Society and is an elected member of the Association of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland. She serves as a referee for several grant-giving bodies and journals.

Barry Furr, OBE BSc MA (Cantab) FMedSci

Barry Furr is a reproductive biologist and endocrinologist by training who worked for over 33 years at AstraZeneca and its associate companies.
He held a range of research management positions, retiring in 2005 as Chief Scientist.  He worked on the antioestrogenic breast cancer drug, tamoxifen, and both Zoladex and Casodex for prostate cancer were discovered in his laboratory.

He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and Institute of Biology, and has an honorary chair at the University of Manchester.  He is a William Pitt Fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge and a Trustee of the Breast Cancer Campaign and member of the CRUK Council Research Strategy Committee.  He has been Chairman of the Industry Forum of the Academy of Medical Sciences and of the Society of Endocrinology and a council member of the Biosciences Federation.

He was awarded an OBE in 2000 for his contribution to cancer research.  He was awarded the Society for Drug Research Prize for Drug Discovery and the Jubilee Medal of the Society for Endocrinology.  He is now a consultant for a number of companies, including AstraZeneca, Almirall, Medivir, Abingworth, SV Life Sciences, MVM, Avila, Astex, and Syntaxin and is a non-executive Director of Genus and the MHRA.