UK ADVISORS

Professor Alastair Compston CBE
Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge

Alastair Compston is Professor Emeritus of Neurology in the University of Cambridge. He was previously Professor of Neurology, University of Cambridge (1988-2015); consultant neurologist (1982-1987), and professor of neurology, University of Wales College of Medicine (1987-8); president of the European Neurological Society (2002-3) and the Association of British Neurologists (2009-2010; and editor of Brain, a journal of neurology (2004-13). He qualified in medicine from the Middlesex Hospital Medical School in 1971, and subsequently trained in neurology at the National Hospital and the Institute of Neurology, Queen Square. Alastair Compston is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (1998); Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Germany (2008), Foreign Associate Member of the National Academy of Medicine of the USA (2012), and Fellow of the Royal Society (2016). He has been appointed Commander of the British Empire (2016). Alastair Compston’s research focuses on the clinical science of human demyelinating disease with contributions to the genetic epidemiology, immunology, neurobiology and treatment of multiple sclerosis. With others, he developed Alemtuzumab as a treatment for early relapsing-remitting disease. His research has been recognised by several international prizes and awards.

Professor Andrew Copp
UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London & 1979 Foulkes Fellow

Andrew Copp trained as scientist (PhD in experimental embryology, Oxford University, UK) and clinician (MBBS, Guy’s Hospital, UK), with the help of a Foulkes Foundation Fellowship (1979). He worked as Research Fellow in Pediatrics at Stanford University, California, USA (1984-1986), Research Scientist at the ICRF Developmental Biology Unit, University of Oxford (1986-1992) and Senior Lecturer/Reader/Professor at the Institute of Child Health (1992-present). He is Honorary Consultant in Neuropathology at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London. He currently holds an endowed chair in Developmental Neurobiology and heads the Human Developmental Biology Resource at the Institute of Child Health. His research centres upon the embryonic development of the nervous system, using mouse genetic models to study birth defects such as spina bifida. He is conducting clinical trials of inositol to prevent spina bifida that does not respond to folic acid supplements. In 2000, he was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and he became Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists in 2003. He was Director of the Institute of Child Health from 2003 to 2012. He provides counselling to families on the risks of spina bifida recurrence, and he advises the membership of the Foulkes Foundation in the area of academic paediatrics.

Professor Eileen Joyce (Chair)
1980 Foulkes Fellow

Eileen Joyce is Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychiatry at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology. She obtained both her first degree, in experimental psychology, and PhD, in dopamine psychopharmacology, from the University of Cambridge. She went on to study medicine also at Cambridge. She trained in psychiatry at the Bethlem and Maudsley Hospitals and spent several years as a research worker at the Institute of Psychiatry, where she was a Wellcome Trust Lecturer in Mental Health. This was followed by time at the USA National Institutes of Health. Before moving to UCL/UCLH in 2005, she was Professor of Neuropsychiatry at Imperial College. She has served as Chair of several national and international neuropsychiatry organisations and is currently a trustee of the charity Tourette’s Action. Her research has focused on interventions for neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, OCD and Tourette’s syndrome and their mechanisms of action. Her clinic work has involved the management of complex neuropsychiatric disorders.

Professor Denis Talbot
University of Oxford & 1978 Foulkes Fellow

Denis Talbot is Emeritus Professor of Cancer Medicine at the University of Oxford and has served as an Advisor for the Foulkes Foundation for over 30 years. He is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the British Thoracic Oncology Group and member of the Lung Cancer Clinical Experts Group. He serves on Safety, Data Monitoring and Scientific Advisory Boards for clinical trials and is the medical advisor for Clinical Net. Denis was Head of the Oxford Neuroendocrine Tumour Centre, a European Centre of Excellence, and the Oxford Lung Cancer Service. He is past Chairman of the Royal College of Physicians Specialist Advisory Committee for Medical Oncology and Central Oxford Research Ethics Committees. He has served on the ASCO Faculty, Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research Fund Scientific and Medical Advisory Panels, Cancer Research UK Clinician Scientist Advisory Board and New Agents Committee. Denis has published widely on clinical trials of agents targeting cell cycle regulatory proteins, growth factors, DNA repair, macrophage activation and apoptosis underpinned by translational research focused on proof-of-concept studies at the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, Oxford. His publications also reflect expertise in research ethics, physician-patient communication skills and the development of objective assessment tools for evaluating clinical skills. Denis was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the British Thoracic Oncology Group in 2020.

Professor John Williams CBE
Swansea University Medical School

John Williams is Emeritus Professor of Health Services Research at Swansea University Medical School and Honorary Consultant Gastroenterologist at Swansea Bay University Health Board. From 2002-2007 he was Director of R&D for Wales, a post in which he established the Clinical Research Collaboration in Wales (CRC Cymru). His research interests include the development and evaluation of clinical interventions and new models of service delivery, particularly in gastroenterology, and the greater involvement of patients in the process. He has a long-standing interest in improving information systems that support patient care, and from 2002-2019 he directed the Health Informatics Unit at the Royal College of Physicians. In this role he pioneered national standards for the structure and content of patient records, which have been widely adopted.