Alastair Kent is an Adviser to the Progress Educational Trust (PET), Director of Genetic Alliance UK, and Chair of Rare Disease UK. Genetic Alliance UK and Rare Disease UK promote scientific understanding of genetics and rare diseases, and promote the speedy transfer of this new knowledge into improved services and support for the treatment of currently incurable conditions. Alastair is also a Council Member at Understanding Animal Research and a Member of the Advisory Committee of the Economic and Social Research Council's Centre for Social and Economic Research on Innovation in Genomics. He received an OBE for services to healthcare in the New Year Honours List 2011 (.pdf 450 KB). He is coauthor of a chapter in Ethics in Biomedical Research: International Perspectives (buy this book from Amazon UK or Amazon USA).