Two Eminent Geneticists Elected to Academy of Medical Sciences

Tuesday 4 May 2010

Professor Nazneen Rahman and Professor Richard Houlston from The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) have been recognised by election to the Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Professor Rahman is Chair of the ICR’s Section of Cancer Genetics and highly regarded internationally for research into genes that make people more susceptible to breast and childhood cancers.  She is Professor of Human Genetics and also Head of Clinical Cancer Genetics at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust.

Richard Houlston is Professor in Molecular and Population Genetics and his research group has been highly successful in identifying common genetic risk factors for colorectal, lung and brain tumours and leukaemia through large-scale genetic analyses.

Professors Rahman and Houlston will be formally admitted to the Academy at a ceremony on June 22 2010.

Professor Houlston says: “It is an honour to be elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, it reflects the high quality of research undertaken by my team at the ICR.”

Professor Rahman says: “I am delighted at this recognition of the hard work of my team over the past decade.”

Professors Rahman and Houlston are among 40 scientists chosen from a field of 343 initial candidates for election to the Fellowship this year. The Academy’s 983 Fellows are the UK’s leading medical scientists from hospitals, academia, industry and the public service. They have been elected for outstanding contributions to the advancement of medical science, for innovative application of scientific knowledge or for their conspicuous service to healthcare.

-ENDS-

Media Contact: Jane Bunce or 0207 153 5106

The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR)

• The ICR is Europe’s leading cancer research centre
• The ICR has been ranked the UK’s top academic research centre, based on the results of the Higher Education Funding Council’s Research Assessment Exercise
• The ICR works closely with partner The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust to ensure patients immediately benefit from new research. Together the two organisations form the largest comprehensive cancer centre in Europe
• The ICR has charitable status and relies on voluntary income, spending 95 pence in every pound of total income directly on research
• As a college of the University of London, the ICR also provides postgraduate higher education of international distinction
• Over its 100-year history, the ICR’s achievements include identifying the potential link between smoking and lung cancer which was subsequently confirmed, discovering that DNA damage is the basic cause of cancer and isolating more cancer-related genes than any other organisation in the world

For more information visit www.icr.ac.uk