Professor Anna Williams and Professor Tilo Kunath have been appointed as Co-Directors of the Centre for Regenerative Medicine. Professor Williams is a Professor of Regenerative Neurology and Honorary Consultant Neurologist and Professor Kunath is a Chair of Regenerative Neurobiology. Both new Co-Directors have been Principal Investigators in the Centre from its very start in 2008, moving in to what is now IRR North in 2011. I am delighted to be taking on co-directorship of CRM with Tilo. Together, we want to grow CRM science and community further and we are very excited to take this on as part of our new institute. Professor Anna Williams CRM Co-Director I am so pleased to be appointed co-Director of CRM with Anna. We are both keen to build on our already successful Centre and bring us to new levels of success and impact. Professor Tilo Kunath CRM Co-Director Professors Kunath and Williams succeed Professor Stuart Forbes Director of CRM from 2015 and now Director of the Institute for Regeneration and Repair of which CRM is a key part. Both Anna and Tilo have a long history of involvement in and support of the Centre and Institute and I know they will offer much to the role. I wish them the best in this important role within IRR. Professor Stuart Forbes IRR Director Research interests Professor Williams’ research focusses on how to keep myelin and oligodendrocytes healthy for good neuronal function in brain and spinal cord. She trained at the University of Edinburgh Medical school and did an undergraduate degree in Pathology. She then went on to do a PhD with Peter Brophy in Edinburgh on peripheral nerve myelin and post-doctoral research on central nervous system myelin in Paris with Catherine Lubetzki. She has held a Wellcome Trust intermediate fellowship, CSO Senior fellowship, is co-director of the multiple sclerosis research centre, deputy director of BHF research excellence centre, is an MS Society UK Ambassador and a committee member of the French MS Society.Professor Kunath’s research focusses on using pluripotent stem cells to model and treat Parkinson’s disease. He did a PhD at the University of Toronto in Developmental Biology in the lab of Prof Janet Rossant, He joined the University of Edinburgh in October 2003 in Prof Austin Smith’s lab in the School of Biological Sciences and became a Principal Investigator in 2007. He was awarded a Parkinson’s UK Senior Fellowship in 2010, and a Chancellor’s Fellowship in 2013.Professor Kunath is heavily involved with the Parkinson’s patient community, including the initiation of the annual Edinburgh Parkinson’s Lecture started in 2012. He was the proud winner of the Tom Isaacs award 2019. Each year the Tom Isaacs Award is presented to a researcher who has shown the greatest impact on the lives of people living with Parkinson’s and/or has involved people with Parkinson’s in a participatory way in their work.The Centre for Regenerative Medicine was formed in 2008 with funding from the Medical Research Council. Its founding Director was Professor Sir Ian Wilmut who was succeeded by Professor Charles ffrench-Constant and then Professor Forbes. Williams Research Group Kunath Research Group Edinburgh Parkinson's Lecture Professor Anna Williams and Professor Tilo Kunath This article was published on 2024-10-18
