After he was forced to resign his position of director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for the Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases at Oxford University and his job as a Wellcome Trust governor, following allegations of sexual harrassment (Nature 404, 696 & 802; 2000), the future of leading biomathematical epidemiologist Roy Anderson had been the subject of intense speculation. But despite rumors that he would move to an academic lab on the west coast of the US, Anderson has accepted an offer only 50 miles away: Anderson's team will take up residence at Imperial College School of Medicine, London, by the end of the year.

The move, along with the defection of Anderson's senior colleagues Brian Spratt and Geoff Smith, is a substantial blow to Oxford, which will be 80 scientsts down and several million pounds poorer in grants. Despite recent events, Anderson still enjoys the status of one of the world's leading biomathematical epidemiologists, and the exit of Smith, an expert pox virologist, will almost wipe out Oxford's virology research program.

The researchers have been wooed by Jonathan Weber, who explains that the new teams will be the prefect fit for a new institute that he is creating at Imperial. This will comprise infection and immunity researchers such as Peter Openshaw (respiratory syncitial virus), Charles Bangham (retroviral immunology) Paul Farrel (EBV tumor virology) and Mike Levine (meningococcal virology) from the Wright-Flemming Institute, in addition to epidemiology and biostatistics scientists in the Geoffrey Rose group headed by Paul Elliot.

The changes will be watched with interest by those in the biomedical community, which will be expecting great things from such a star-studded center, will also be curious to see Oxford's recovery strategy, and will continue to observe Anderson's behavior..