T. J. Hamblin

Terry J. Hamblin (born 1943) has been Professor of Immunohaematology at the University of Southampton, United Kingdom since 1987. Born in Worcester, England, he was educated at the University of Bristol.

He was appointed as Consultant Haematologist in Bournemouth in 1974. He pursued a research career in haematology and immunology, successively becoming an expert in plasma exchange, stem cell transplantation, monoclonal antibody therapy, myelodysplastic syndrome and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. He was awarded Guernsey Fellowship for stem cell transplantation in 1986 and the Binet-Rai medal for outstanding research in CLL in 2003.

He was a prolific author of books, chapters, original peer-reviewed articles, reviews, editorials, and web articles on scientific and medical topics. He was editor of the scientific journal "Leukemia Research" (1986-) and a columnist for the comic/medical political magazine "World Medicine" (1976-84).

His most important research discovery was that chronic lymphocytic leukaemia comes in two forms, depending on whether the immunoglobulin heavy chain variable region genes contain somatic mutations. If they do the survival of the patient averages 25 years; if they do not, the survival of the patient averages 8 years.

He publicized the fact that, contrary to popular belief, spinach contains no more iron than lettuce, while pink succulent lobster contains none at all; like all invertebrates its respiratory pigment is based on copper rather than iron.