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The Human Genetics Commission (HGC) was an advisory non-departmental public body that advised the UK government on the ethical and social aspects of genetics. This included genetic testing, cloning and other aspects of molecular medicine. The Commission was created after a review of the UK government biotechnology advisory framework in 1999. It was chaired initially by the lawyer, Baroness Helena Kennedy QC and, from 2007 to 2009, the acting chair was Sir John Sulston. From 2009, the Commission was chaired by Professor Jonathan Montgomery and comprised 21 members whose backgrounds include the law, medicine, consumer affairs, philosophy and ethics, scientific research, and clinical practice. Representatives of the Chief Medical Officers of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland also sat on the Commission. [1] [2]
The Commission was abolished when quangos were reviewed by the newly elected government in October 2010. The Commission published its final paper in May 2012. [1] [3] [4]
Helena Ann Kennedy, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws, KC, FRSA, HonFRSE, is a Scottish barrister, broadcaster, and Labour member of the House of Lords. She was Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, from 2011 to 2018.
The Medical Research Council (MRC) is responsible for co-coordinating and funding medical research in the United Kingdom. It is part of United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI), which came into operation 1 April 2018, and brings together the UK's seven research councils, Innovate UK and Research England. UK Research and Innovation is answerable to, although politically independent from, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Arthur L. Caplan is an American ethicist and professor of bioethics at New York University Grossman School of Medicine.
Bartha Maria Knoppers, OC OQ is a Canadian law Professor and an expert on the ethical aspects of genetics, genomics and biotechnology.
Sir Colin Blakemore,, Hon was a British neurobiologist, specialising in vision and the development of the brain. He was Yeung Kin Man Professor of Neuroscience and senior fellow of the Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study at City University of Hong Kong. He was a distinguished senior fellow in the Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study, University of London and Emeritus Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Oxford and a past Chief Executive of the British Medical Research Council (MRC). He was best known to the public as a communicator of science but also as the target of a long-running animal rights campaign. According to The Observer, he was both "one of the most powerful scientists in the UK" and "a hate figure for the animal rights movement".
Dame Katharine Mary Barker is a British economist. She is principally noted for her role at the Bank of England and for advising the British government on social issues such as housing and health care.
Sir Roy Malcolm Anderson is a leading international authority on the epidemiology and control of infectious diseases. He is the author, with Robert May, of the most highly cited book in this field, entitled Infectious Diseases of Humans: Dynamics and Control. His early work was on the population ecology of infectious agents before focusing on the epidemiology and control of human infections. His published research includes studies of the major viral, bacterial and parasitic infections of humans, wildlife and livestock. This has included major studies on HIV, SARS, foot and mouth disease, bovine tuberculosis, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), influenza A, antibiotic resistant bacteria, the neglected tropical diseases and most recently COVID-19. Anderson is the author of over 650 peer-reviewed scientific articles with an h-index of 125.
Dame Kay Elizabeth Davies is a British geneticist. She is Dr Lee's Professor of Anatomy at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford. She is director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) functional genetics unit, a governor of the Wellcome Trust, a director of the Oxford Centre for Gene Function, and a patron and Senior Member of Oxford University Scientific Society. Her research group has an international reputation for work on Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). In the 1980s, she developed a test which allowed for the screening of foetuses whose mothers have a high risk of carrying DMD.
The Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) is a committee of the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. It was formed in October 2005, and assumed the responsibilities of the Medicines Commission and the Committee on Safety of Medicines. Membership in this various and extensive body is listed on a governmental website.
Eric Jeffrey Topol is an American cardiologist, scientist, and author. He is the founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, a professor of Molecular Medicine and Executive Vice-President at Scripps Research Institute, and a senior consultant at the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases at Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, California. He is editor-in-chief of Medscape and theheart.org. He has published three bestseller books on the future of medicine: The Creative Destruction of Medicine (2010), The Patient Will See You Now (2015), and Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again (2019). He was commissioned by the UK from 2018–2019 to lead planning for the National Health Service's future workforce, integrating genomics, digital medicine, and artificial intelligence.
The Nuffield Council on Bioethics is a UK-based independent charitable body, which examines and reports on bioethical issues raised by new advances in biological and medical research. Established in 1991, the Council is funded by the Nuffield Foundation, the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust. The Council has been described by the media as a 'leading ethics watchdog', which 'never shrinks from the unthinkable'.
K. Srinath Reddy is an Indian physician and the Former President of the Public Health Foundation of India and formerly headed the Department of Cardiology at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
Following the 2010 United Kingdom general election, the UK Government under the Cameron–Clegg coalition announced plans to curb public spending through the abolition of a large number of quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations (quangos). This was styled in the national press as a "bonfire of the quangos", making reference to Girolamo Savonarola's religiously inspired Bonfire of the Vanities.
Martin Bobrow is a British geneticist, and Emeritus Fellow, Wolfson College, Cambridge.
Dame Lesley Anne Glover is a Scottish biologist and academic. She was Professor of molecular biology and cell biology at the University of Aberdeen before being named Vice Principal for External Affairs and Dean for Europe. She served as Chief Scientific Adviser to the President of the European Commission from 2012 to 2014. In 2018 she joined the Principal's senior advisory team at the University of Strathclyde.
The Office for Civil Society Advisory Body was a quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation (quango) set up by the Government of the United Kingdom in July 2008, which advised the government on the needs of charities and voluntary organisations in the United Kingdom, and to implement the July 2007 review by HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office. The body was formed as a result of the merger of four previous advisory structures: the Voluntary and Community Sector Advisory Group, Futurebuilders Advisory Panel, Infrastructure National Partnership and the Third Sector Review Advisory Group, was chaired by Baroness Jill Pitkeathley OBE, and was part of the Cabinet Office's Office of Civil Society.
Trevor Mervyn Jones, CBE PhD DSc (Hon) FRCP FMedSci FBPhS FRSM FRSC FLSW is a visiting professor at King's College London, and a former Head of R&D, at Wellcome. He continues to have a distinguished career in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry as well as in academia.
Daniel H. Geschwind is the Gordon and Virginia MacDonald Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics, Neurology and Psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He also directs the UCLA Neurogenetics Program and the UCLA Center for Autism Research and Treatment (CART), and holds the Gordon and Virginia MacDonald Distinguished Chair of Human Genetics there. Since March 1, 2016, he has served as the Senior Associate Dean and Associate Vice Chancellor for Precision Medicine at UCLA. His brother, Michael Geschwind, is also a professor of neurology, and behavioral neurology pioneer Norman Geschwind is his father's first cousin.
Sir Jonathan Robert Montgomery is a British legal scholar who specialises in health care law. He is Professor of Health Care Law at University College London.
Dr Angela Eleine Thomas is a physician originally specialising in paediatric haematology who has held leading roles during her long career in health and medicine. She is a non-executive director for the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult. She has had a leading role in the regulation of medicines at National, European and International level and until 2018 was vice chair of the UK government’s Commission on Human Medicines, chairing its Clinical Trials, Biologicals and Vaccines Expert Advisory Group.