Role of the Scientific Board

The Scientific Board is responsible for reviewing applications for funding and recommending grant awards.

Composition of the Scientific Board

 About Irene Leigh

Professor Irene Leigh is a graduate of the London Hospital Medical College.  After graduation she gained a lecturership in medicine at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.  In 1979 she returned to the UK and worked as a Senior Registrar at St John’s Hospital for Diseases of the Skin.

Professor Leigh joined the London Hospital four years later as a Consultant Dermatologist. She went on to become a Senior Lecturer and then Professor of Dermatology in 1991. She was Director of the Cancer Research UK Skin Tumour Laboratory and Head of the Centre for Cutaneous Research at Bart’s and the London, Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry until 2006.

The Research Centre’s laboratories comprise multiple research teams focusing on: keratinocyte differentiation, connexins and keratin mutations; non melanoma skin cancer and molecular mechanisms; human papillomavirus and cellular mechanisms;  hair biology; keratinocyte migration and extracellular matrix;  stem cells; prostate cancer; cutaneous viruses; tissue engineering and skin equivalents.

The Centre also runs a successful postgraduate programme for Clinical Dermatology, largely for primary care physicians, as well as undergraduate teaching. In 1997 she was appointed Dean for Research, St Bartholomews and the Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry. In 1999 she was awarded the DSc, became a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and became Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine.