WIBR History
The Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research was founded at UCL in 1996 by Salvador Moncada (FRS). It is located in the Cruciform Building in Bloomsbury.
WIBR is an academic department of the UCL Faculty of Medical Sciences. We are situated in the Cruciform Building in Bloomsbury, formerly the main building of University College Hospital.
Originally named the Cruciform Project, the aim of WIBR is to facilitate the interface between fundamental biological research and its application both to the discovery of new medicines and to clinical practice.
The Institute now comprises more than 200 scientists, many of whom are of international standing.
WIBR scientists recognised by the Royal Society
- John Wood, 2009
- Bill Richardson, 2013
- Michael Hausser, 2015
Famous people who worked at the institute
Sir Patrick Vallance, FRS FMedSci FRCP HonFREng is Government Chief Scientific Adviser (GCSA), National Technology Adviser (NTA) and Head of the Government Science and Engineering (GSE) Profession.
Ashley Jarvis, Executive Vice President, Head of Medicinal Chemistry, Evotec.
Paul van Heyningen OBE, Deputy Director for Energy Security and Net Zero, in the Department for Energy Security.
Matthew Fogarty, Head of Patient Safety, NHS-England.
Rebuen Dawkins, Co-Funder and CEO, Link Biologics.
Sam Shepherd, International music superstar (Floating Points)
Chih-Cheng Chen, Professor, Cademica Sineca, Taiwan
Prof. Ian Charles, Director of the Quadram Institute.
Prof. John Garthwaite, Emeritus Professor of Experimental Neuroscience
Prof Chris Boshoff, MD, PhD, FMedSci, Chief Development Officer, Pfizer Oncology and Rare Disease
Dr Karl Peter Giese, Chair of Neuroscience of Mental Health, KCL
Dr Georgy Koentges, Professor of Biomedicine and Evolution. University of Warwick
Dr Brigitte Meunier, Clinical expert, Orphanet Institute, France
Ken Powell, Chairman Of The Board at Theolytics and Founder 3C CIC
Prof. Gareth Williams, co-founder and Medical Director at Oncologica
Gabriel Benthall, Associate Director, Oncology, Global Analytics & Insights, AstraZeneca.
History of the Cruciform Building
The building we occupy has a long history too.
The Cruciform Building is a Grade II listed building designed in the late 19th century by the renowned Victorian architect, Alfred Waterhouse. It was completed in 1906 and functioned as University College Hospital for over 90 years.
After the NHS vacated the building for a new premises nearby, the Cruciform underwent a £50 million renovation to restore its grandeur and to generate a modern and high quality interior for the 21st century.
