Local Thoughtful House Center for Children executive director Dr. Andrew Wakefield resigned his position on Feb. 18. Wakefield announced in online publication Age of Autism Friday that he will move on to a new phase of leadership in the autism community and prepare a more aggressive defense of his scientific accomplishments in the wake of a recent British General Medical Council ruling.

A GMC panel in a Jan. 28 ruling found the actions of Wakefield to be “dishonest,” “irresponsible” and “contrary to the clinical interests” of children tested during research for a February 1998 report published in the Lancet, a leading British medical journal. The report suggested that the measles virus and the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine might play a part in developing inflammatory bowel disease, which could play a role in autistic spectrum disorder.

The GMC declared that two of Wakefield’s colleagues in the department of pediatric gastroenterology at the Royal Free, John Walker-Smith and Simon Murch shared responsibility for the ethical conduct of the trial, although neither one was said to have acted dishonestly.

“We fully support [Dr. Wakefield’s] decision to leave Thoughtful House in order to make sure that the controversy surrounding the recent findings of the General Medical Council does not interfere with the important work that our dedicated team of clinicians and researchers is doing on behalf of children with autism and their families,” Jane Johnson of Thoughtful House said on Feb. 18.

Wakefield said he would release additional information on his new position shortly.

“I have no intention of not pursuing science to its natural conclusion,” he said during an interview in local coffee shop Lola Savannah’s Monday.

Wakefield was a senior scientist in charge of a primate research program on vaccine safety. Neurotoxicology published the first paper from this project online on October 2. New findings resulting from that research are expected in the near future. Some parents of autistic children and autism advocates have expressed concerns that the attack on Wakefield has been part of a highly organized and well-funded campaign to discredit the scientist and to protect public policy and pharmaceutical companies.

“People need to understand as they watch this play out in the media, that what they are seeing is a very expensive public relations campaign,” Wakefield said.

Wakefield is often credited with starting a vaccine scare in England that drastically lowered the number of parents bringing in children for routine shots after the publication of his paper in the Lancet, suggesting there might be a link between MMR vaccines and autism. Wakefield denies the implication.

“I am not anti-vaccine,’ he said. “ I’m all for safe vaccination programs where safety is paramount.”

Scientists in the primate study are getting very close to resolving some important questions regarding the safety of combined vaccines, Wakefield said.

“There was not a safety study done on multiple exposure from combination vaccines,” he said. “They should have done a safety study before they launched the product. They didn’t. We did, and there is a problem.”

Wakefield said parents should always act to protect children from serious infectious disease.

“Talk to your doctor; get informed,” he said. “There is a huge amount of information out there and some great books from authors like Dr. Richard Halvorsen and Dr. Stephanie Cave. Learn everything you can.”

Wakefield will continue on to the next level of GMC hearings in July, when the GMC will decide if he is guilty of serious professional misconduct and could revoke his license to practice medicine in the U.K. He said that he hopes to see a resolution of the issues concerning the safety of combined vaccines in his lifetime.

“I hope we begin to see some benefit to children from the resolution of that issue in the next five years,” he said.