Professor Peter Furness

Professor Peter Furness is President of the Royal College of Pathologists and a Consultant Histopathologist and Honorary Professor of Renal Pathology at Leicester Royal Infirmary.

His research interests have spanned the laboratory investigation of mechanisms of renal disease, especially fibrosis, to international collaborations on refining the interpretation of renal biopsy results and the classification of renal disease.

His longstanding interest in medical ethics led to his close involvement with the debates around the development and implementation of the UK's Human Tissue Acts, and subsequently in providing training for Research Ethics Committees in the appropriate evaluation of tissue-based research projects. He established and was the first Chair of Leicestershire’s Clinical Ethics Committee.

On behalf of the College, Peter has argued for the establishment of a national system for the evaluation and introduction of novel laboratory tests and working towards reform of the UK's death certification system.