Genome Research Limited
The Institute and the wider Wellcome Genome Campus operate under the name of Genome Research Limited (GRL). GRL was established in 1992 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Wellcome Trust. In 2012, the Wellcome Trust Board of Governors agreed to place all activities on the Wellcome Genome Campus, including the Sanger Institute, under the auspices of GRL in order to facilitate the development of a long term and coherent strategy for the Campus and all activities on it.
Through the activities of the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the wider Genome Campus, the ambition of GRL over the next 20 years is to strengthen its well-established scientific foundations and to build on them, such that the Wellcome Genome Campus becomes an international centre for scientific, business, cultural and educational activities emanating from Genomes and BioData. To achieve this vision GRL’s Mission is to:
- Advance understanding of biology using genome sequences and biodata.
- Apply genome science for human health and other societal benefits.
- Foster discussion of the scientific, medical and wider implications of genomes.
Genome Research Limited Board of Directors
John-Arne Røttingen (Chair – from June 2024)
John-Arne joined Wellcome as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in January 2024 and leads the charitable foundation’s mission to support science to solve the urgent health challenges facing everyone.
John-Arne has held many international roles in health and research, including most recently as Ambassador for Global Health at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Norway.
Prior to this, he was founding CEO of CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations), which Wellcome helped to launch, and has been the Chief Executive of the Research Council of Norway.
He has held academic positions at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the University of Oslo. He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and the US National Academy of Medicine.
John-Arne trained in medicine and science, receiving his MD and PhD from the University of Oslo. He also has an MSc from the University of Oxford and MPA from Harvard University. His research has spanned basic science, epidemiology, clinical trials, health services research and global health policy, governance and financing. He has led the steering groups for the Ebola vaccine trial in Guinea and the Covid-19 WHO Solidarity Trial, and the Lancet Series on access and sustainable effectiveness of antimicrobials.
He has held many national and international board and advisory board roles, including board member of Science Europe and chair of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, and was a board member of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, PATH, Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) and Medicines Patent Pool (MPP).
He has served on expert and advisory bodies at the WHO and in global health, including more recently as chair of the ACT-Accelerator Financial and Resource Mobilization Working Group and a member of the G20 High Level Independent Panel on Financing the Global Commons for Pandemic Preparedness and Response. He served on the Standing Committee on Science of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and on the Science and Research Committee of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and was co-chair of the Future of Global Health Initiatives.
Daniel Abrams
Daniel is a non-executive director of CUH NHS FT where he is also the Audit Committee Chair, and a consultant to private equity firm GHO Capital where he is also Audit committee Chair of a portfolio company. Daniel has previously held executive director positions including as Chief Financial Officer at Volex plc, Fiberweb plc, CDT inc and Xenova plc and senior executive roles at PepsiCo Inc and Diageo plc.
He is also a former non-executive director of the Biotech Industry Association and Panel member of the FRRP in the FRC.Daniel has an MA (Hons) Law from Cambridge University and is a qualified chartered accountant, FCA, and barrister-at-law.
Karen Chadwick
Karen Chadwick was appointed Interim Chief Operating Officer of Wellcome in February 2023. Her responsibilities include ensuring Wellcome has the best possible operating position across a range of functions including Digital & Technology, Finance, Legal and Research Funding and Risk. Karen is also very focused on optimising Wellcome’s overall control environment to ensure that we are in a position of managing risks effectively and are able to deliver on our strategy.
Dr Daniel Mahony
Daniel is Chair of Trellus Health plc and also Chairs the BioIndustry Association. He received his Ph.D. in Developmental Biology from the University of Cambridge and conducted post-doctoral research at the DNAX Research Institute in Palo Alto. Daniel has over 25 years’ experience in financial services working for ING Barings, Morgan Stanley and Polar Capital, where he co-founded the healthcare business in 2007. Daniel is currently a non-executive director of Sernova Corporation and Keepabl. In 2022, he was appointed as the Life Sciences Investment Envoy by the UK Government.
Dr Nicole Mather
Dr Nicole Mather leads Life Sciences and Health Data for IBM Consulting based in London with a focus on enabling digital & data transformation to improve patient care. Nicole has over twenty years experience in Healthcare & Life Sciences including with AT Kearney and Deloitte. More recently, Nicole set up and led the Office for Life Sciences in UK Government and was a Non-Executive Director of the Health Research Authority from 2019-2023. Nicole has a DPhil in Genomics from the University of Oxford.
Mark McCarthy
Mark McCarthy is a Principal Fellow and Executive Director of Human Genetics at Genentech, based in South San Francisco. Prior to his move to industry in 2019, he was the Robert Turner Professor of Diabetic Medicine at the University of Oxford — where his research focused on the genetic and genomic basis of type 2 diabetes and related traits — and an Honorary Consultant Physician at the Oxford University Hospitals.
He has played a central role in establishing and leading multiple academic and public-private partnerships focused on delivering large-scale genetic and genomic datasets of broad relevance to the research community. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in the UK.
Matthew Newcombe-Ellis
Matt is an experienced non-executive director in the medical and scientific research sector. Currently he serves as the Chair of Trustees for Kidney Research UK, the leading kidney research charity in the UK, and as a Director of Cambridge spin-out Constructive Bio whose platform technologies allow the fundamental reprogramming of the genetic code to create new classes of enzymes, pharmaceuticals and biomaterials.
Matt was previously Chair of Trustees for Prostate Cancer Research for six years. During this time the charity significantly expanded the portfolio of research that it funds, including leading researchers at universities and academic institutions in the UK and US, supporting translational research in partnership with leading pharma and biotechs, and a programme of grants focused on addressing the racial inequalities in prostate cancer.
Before moving into the charity sector, Matt worked in investment banking for 15 years, advising on over $300bn of mergers and acquisitions for some of the largest companies in the UK.
Caroline Relton
Caroline Relton is Pro Director for Research and Academic Development at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and holds a Faculty position at the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol where she was previously Director of the Bristol Population Health Science Institute. She has a PhD in molecular genetics and a research background in genetic and molecular epidemiology and has published widely on the role of epigenetic variation in disease. She has various advisory roles including Vice-Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of EMBL.
Dame Cilla Snowball DBE
Cilla Snowball is a Governor of Wellcome and a non-executive director at Derwent London plc, Whitbread PLC and the Council of the University of Birmingham. Previously she was Group CEO and Group Chairman of creative agency AMV BBDO, chair of the Women’s Business Council, and a trustee of Comic Relief. Cilla is the GRL Board EDI and Speak Up champion.
GRL Policies
- Covid-19 Testing Privacy Notice_Feb 2021 – Download the PDF – covering how Genome Research Limited will use and protect personal data gathered when carrying out COVID-19 testing of GRL employees and contractors on the Wellcome Genome Campus
