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Albert Weale is Professor of Government at the University of Essex where his academic interests focus on political theory and public policy. He is co-editor of the British Journal of Political Science.

Amanda Burls is Director of Postgraduate Programmes in Evidence-Based Health Care at the University of Oxford, and works on the International Network for Knowledge about Wellbeing (ThinkWell), which aims to put the public and patients at the heart of health research. She was Director of the West Midlands Health Technology Assessment Collaboration until 2007.

Roger Brownsword is Director of the Centre for Technology, Law, Ethics and Society (TELOS), School of Law, King’s College London and Honorary Professor in Law at the University of Sheffield. Research interests include legal theory, bioethics and the regulation of technology.

Professor of Cardiac Pharmacology at the National Heart And Lung Institute, a Division of the Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London. Member of the Central Ethical Review Committee for Animal Studies and a Designated Person for administration of the Human Tissue Act. Scientific interests include gene and cell therapy for heart disease.

Peter Harper is University Research Professor in Human Genetics, Cardiff University. He has had a long-standing research interest in inherited neurological disorders, especially Huntington's disease and myotonic dystrophy. He has been extensively involved in the practice and development of genetic counselling, and is author of Practical Genetic Counselling. He was a member of the Council's first Working Party on Genetic Screening: ethical issues.

Ray Hill is Head of Licensing and External Research for Europe at Merck, Sharp and Dohme and is responsible for establishing mutually beneficial relationships with European companies and academic institutions across all therapeutic and technology areas . He is a pharmacologist with a special interest in pain and headache research and is a Visiting Professor at Bristol, Surrey and Stathclyde Universities. Currently, he is a non-executive Director of the Babraham Institute, Cambridge and chairs the External Affairs Committee of the British Pharmacological Society.

Søren Holm is Professorial Fellow in Bioethics at Cardiff Law School, and part-time Professor of Medical Ethics at the University of Oslo, Norway. He is a medical doctor and philosopher and was a member of the Danish Council of Ethics 1994-1999. He is the President-Elect of the European Society for the Philosophy of Medicine and Health Care.

Christopher Hood is Gladstone Professor of Government and Fellow of All Souls College, University of Oxford. He is also Director of the Economic and Social Research Council’s Public Services Research Programme. Christopher Hood specialises in the study of executive government, regulation and public-sector reform and he is a co-opted member of Council while he chairs the Working Party on personalising healthcare.

Tony Hope is Professor of Medical Ethics, University of Oxford, a Fellow of St Cross College, and an Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist. He is co-founder of The Ethox Centre - a research centre in medical ethics at the University of Oxford. He is a co-opted member of Council while he chairs its Working Party on dementia.

Anatole Kaletsky is Editor at Large of The Times of London and a founding partner of an economic, political and financial consultancy firm. He has 30 years experience as a journalist on publications such as the Financial Times and The Economist.

Rhona Knight has a portfolio career in medicine. She works as a General Practitioner in Peterborough, and is Senior Clinical Educator at the University of Leicester. She has an interest in making bioethical issues accessible and understandable to non-specialist audiences, and is Chair of the Council's Reaching Out to Young People Advisory Group.

Professor of Reproductive Medicine, Consultant Gynaecologist and Head of the NHS Newcastle Fertility Centre at Life. Currently involved in setting clinical standards, embryo research, stem cell derivation and the associated practical, political and ethical issues.

Reader in Geography at Queen Mary, University of London. Bronwyn is an economic and cultural geographer interested in the way human-environment relations are being recast by technological, economic and regulatory changes. Research topics include the political economy of the life sciences industry, the commodification and patenting of life forms, bioethics, and the creation and use of human tissue banks. She has acted as consultant to the UK government and the UN.

Hugh Perry is Professor of Experimental Neuropathology at the University of Southampton and Director of Southampton Neuroscience Group. Currently Chair of the Wellcome Trust Molecular & Cellular Neuroscience Committee. His research interests include interactions between the immune system and nervous system in health and disease and neurodegenerative disease.

James Martin White Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Director of the LSE's BIOS Centre for the Study of Bioscience, Biomedicine, Biotechnology and Society. Initially trained as a biologist and psychologist. His current research is on the social and political implications of the new sciences of the brain.

Professor, Infectious Disease Epidemiology Unit, Dept of Infectious and Tropical Diseases London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Currently a Governor of the Wellcome Trust. Interests include large-scale trials of vaccines and other interventions against tropical diseases.

Jonathan Wolff is Head of the Department of Philosophy at University College London. His research interests include political philosophy, Marx and ethics. He was a member of the Council’s Working Party on the ethics of animal research.