Advisory Board
& Administration
SCER's Advisory Board are experts in the field of stem cells.
They founded the not-for-profit organisation SCER to support the stem cell research community
and to educate and inform the general public about stem cells.
Professor Austin Smith
Director, Stem Cell Education and Research
Austin studied Biochemistry at the University of Oxford where he became fascinated by pluripotency. He pursued this interest in PhD studies with Prof Martin Hooper at the University of Edinburgh and post-doctoral research in Oxford with Prof John Heath. Austin then joined the Centre for Genome Research in Edinburgh as a Group Leader. In 1995 he became Director of Centre which he transformed into the Institute for Stem Cell Research. In 2006 Austin moved to the University of Cambridge and was founding Director of the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute until 2016. In 2019 he took up the post of Director of the Living Systems Institute at the University of Exeter.
Professor Sally Lowell
Advisory Board Member
Sally studied Biochemistry at the University of Oxford where she became interested in developmental biology. She pursued this interest by undertaking a PhD with Fiona Watt at CRUK. Sally then went on to do a postdoc with David Anderson at Caltech before moving to another postdoc position with Austin Smith at the University of Edinburgh. Sally became a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow at the University of Edinburgh and is now a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, UK. Her research group, which is based in the Centre for Regenerative Medicine, studies cell fate decisions in stem cells, focusing on how communication and interactions between cells can influence these decisions.
Professor Kim Jensen
Advisory Board Member
Kim received his PhD in molecular biology from the University of Aarhus, where he became interested in adult stem cells and tissue homeostasis. To pursue this interest, he joined Prof Fiona Watt at CRUK for his postdoctoral training. In 2010, he became a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow at the University of Cambridge. Kim has subsequently moved to the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, where is the deputy director for the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine. The research in Kim’s group focuses on the role of adult stem cells in tissue homeostasis with special emphasis on the intestinal epithelium.
Dr Allen Eaves
Advisory Board Member
Allen is president and CEO of STEMCELL Technologies Inc. which he founded in 1993 to provide novel and standardized tissue culture reagents, immuno-magnetic cell separation products, instruments and tools for stem cell research, regenerative medicine, gene therapy, tissue engineering and cancer research. Allen attended Acadia University (BSc in biology & mathematics), Dalhousie University (MSc in Physiology and MD) and the University of Toronto (PhD in medical biophysics). He completed his fellowship in internal medicine and medical oncology at the Vancouver General Hospital and the British Columbia Cancer Agency. With his wife, Dr. Connie Eaves, he founded Vancouver’s Terry Fox Laboratory for Cancer Research and was its director for 25 years. He was head of clinical hematology at the University of British Columbia for 18 years.
Mrs Jenny Nelder
Management Support
Jenny is a management consultant and senior administrator. She has worked for the NHS, industry, universities and charities. Until recently Jenny was Senior Director of Business Administration at Cyted Ltd. Prior to that she was Project Manager for 2 large-scale (€6m & €12m) EC/research consortia, a MRC pathfinder project and a UKRI/CRUK Innovate grant. She was Stem Cell Institute Co-ordinator at the University of Cambridge, and the Contract Negotiation Group Manager at Cambridge University's Research Services Division. She has extensive experience in event management having been the Conference Manager at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge as well as Conference Manager for the NHS. She has run festivals, film premieres and educational conferences.