They also exist to carry out research and, equally importantly, flag up emerging issues that the wider commercial community needs to be paying attention to.
The society has told officials that if they were to request consent from relatives to carry out research it would compromise their neutrality and breach the trust they have built up with the public.
Officials will use the money to carry out research with what they say are the few people still alive who knew Thomas "to ensure these memories are saved for the future".
The researchers are now seeking funding to carry on their research so they can evaluate what level of disulphide bond indicates that someone is at risk of osteoporosis, or that they already have the disease.
"VCTs that don't have enough cash to play with may not be able to carry out sufficient research into the companies that they invest in and this could harm performance, " Mr Churchill said.