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Pr Vincent Geenen announced today that as of 6 September 2006, Dr Hugh Robson MacDonald joined the Euro-Thymaide Scientific Advisory Board.
Euro-Thymaide appointed three international experts as members of its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) since inception of its activities in January 2004.
These experts assess the progress and orientation of research done within Euro-Thymaide, and advise the management and the project committee on future development.

The two other experts of the SAB are Pr Herman WALDMANN (UK), an international expert in the field of immune tolerance from Oxford University (UK) and Pr Christian BOITARD (F) a renowned expert in immunology of type 1 diabetes, from Hospital Cochin-Saint Vincent de Paul in Paris.
Dr Hugh Robson MacDonald takes over from Pr Jean-Charles CEROTTINI (CH) who announced his retirement.
Dr MacDonald is an international expert in thymus development from the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Lausanne.
Rob received a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1972, working on cytotoxic T cells and continued these studies as a postdoctoral fellow with Jean-Charles Cerottini in Lausanne, Switzerland.

After a brief stay in London, Canada, he returned to Lausanne in 1977 and joined the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, where he is currently Acting Director. Over the years, he has contributed to many areas of T-cell biology. At present, his research programme is mainly focused on T- and NKT-cell development.

Pr Vincent G. Geenen, Director of the Liege University Centre of Immunology and coordinator of Euro-Thymaide, a EU co-financed Integrated Project, commented the meeting: “Rob takes over from Prof Jean-Charles Cerrotini who announced his retirement. Rob’s expertise is an important value for the future of our project which explores the biological function of the thymus.
The thymus is responsible for the generation of T lymphocytes, a type of white blood cells responsible for cellular immunity. It is in the thymus that T lymphocytes are made competent against external infections while they are rendered self-tolerant, i.e. they do not attack tissues of their host. Dr. MacDonald is involved in many aspects of T cell biology including development, lineage commitment, repertoire selection, tolerance and memory.

Rob will contribute in guiding and advising our network in the second phase of the project at a crucial moment. At mid-term stage, Euro-Thymaide partners have done an impressive amount of work. This is reflected by the 41 scientific publications produced from January 05 to February 06. In the near future, our project will envisage to test new pre-clinical developments of some results generated during the two first years, organize training activities for the young people recruited into our project and organize dissemination of the generated know-how. We are grateful to Pr Cerottini for his presence at our side during these first years of Euro-Thymaide project and we welcome Rob in this important moment for Euro-Thymaide.”

Dr Hugh Robson MacDonald, commented his new involvement:

“It is an honor for me to join the Euro-Thymaide Scientific Advisory Board. I believe that my expertise in basic aspects of thymus development will be complementary to that of the other SAB members who are renowned for their work on immune tolerance and autoimmunity. It will be particularly exciting to work with the Euro-Thymaide team as they move forward into the second stage of the project”.

For further information:

Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research
Ch. des Boveresses 155
CH-1066 Epalinges, 1066, Switzerland
Telephone: +41 21 692 5989
Fax Number: +41 21 692 5995

E-mail: HughRobson.Macdonald@isrec.unil.ch