The Cell and Gene Therapy (CGT) Catapult today announces the appointment of Sir Bruce Keogh, Professor Uta Griesenbach and Hilary Newiss as non-executive directors to its Board. The new appointments will join current Board members supporting the activities of the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult.

Knighted for his services to medicine in 2003, Sir Bruce Keogh has had a distinguished international career as a cardiac surgeon. He held the chair of Cardiac Surgery at University College London before being appointed medical director of the NHS in the Department of Health in 2007, subsequently migrating to become the national medical director of NHS England between 2013 and 2018.

With over 25 years’ experience in developing advanced therapeutic medicines, Uta Griesenbach is a Professor of Molecular Medicine in the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London and president of the British Society for Gene and Cell Therapy (2017-2021). Uta Griesenbach is a strategy group member of the UK Cystic Fibrosis Gene Therapy Consortium and has been a co-Investigator on several gene therapy trials.

Hilary Newiss is a lawyer who has specialised in intellectual property law, including patents and data in life sciences, and former partner in Denton Hall solicitors, now Dentons. Since retiring from full time legal practice, she has served on public bodies in the science, innovation, data, health and ethics fields including the Human Genetics Commission and Ethics and Governance Council of Biobank UK. Most recently, she served as a non-executive director of the Francis Crick Institute, as well as a trustee and non-executive director of The Roslin Foundation and a legal member of the Animal Procedures Committee.