Research and Development Committee
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The Research and Development Committee is an NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) Board committee with specifically delegated powers to provide strategic oversight of an innovative, cohesive high-quality programme of research and development (R&D).
The committee comprises non-executive directors, external experts and executive directors. The external experts provide valuable scientific advice which guides our future R&D activities.
Professor Hans L Zaaijer
Head of Dept Blood-Borne Infections, Sanquin Research
Prof. Hans Zaaijer is Professor of Blood-Borne Infections at the University of Amsterdam's Faculty of Medicine (AMC-UvA), and a Medical microbiologist at Clinical Virology, AMC, Amsterdam.
Prof. Zaaijer has been involved in blood-borne infections research since 1992 and was one of the initiators of national guidelines for the prevention of iatrogenic hepatitis B, treatment of needle stick injuries and screening of blood, organ and tissue donors.
Prof. Zaaijer has been Head of 'Blood-borne Infections' at Sanquin Research since 2008. He is chairman of the National Committee for the Prevention of Iatrogenic Hepatitis and HIV, and a member of the Health Council's Committee on the Future of the National Immunization Program.
Associate Professor Andreas Zuckermann, MD
Director of Cardiac Transplantation at the Department of Cardiac Surgery/Medical University of Vienna in Austria
Andreas Zuckermann is a world-recognized leader in Thoracic transplantation and performed Austria’s first ‘ex vivo perfused’ heart transplant in 2007 and Austria’s first DCD-Heart Transplant in 2019. He has received numerous awards for his contribution in transplantation and has > 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals.
He has been a founding member and board member of ECTTA (Thoracic Section of ESOT). He is a past president of Austrotransplant and was board member of ISHLT Eurotransplant and Austrotransplant. He has been program chair of the 2015 ISHLT and the 2016 ECTTA meetings. Currently he is member of the Thoracic advisory committee, the Organ Process chain committee of Eurotransplant.
Professor Dana Devine
Chief Scientist, Canadian Blood Services
Prof. Dana Devine is also a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC).
Prof. Devine completed her research training at Duke University in North Carolina where she obtained a Ph.D. degree in immunology.
She has 25+ years of professional association with the UBC’s Faculty of Medicine as an educator and mentor in blood research. She has a longstanding research career in blood products and is a founding member of UBC’s Centre for Blood Research.
From 2006-2017, Prof. Devine led the Medical Services & Innovation division at Canadian Blood Services, including responsibility for transfusion medicine, donor and transplantation services, emerging pathogens and infectious diseases, surveillance, epidemiology and R&D.
Professor Alessandro Rambaldi
Director of the Department of Oncology and Haematology-Oncology, Bergamo
Prof. Alessandro Rambaldi graduated Maximum cum laude in 1981 from the University of Milan (UNIMI), Italy.
He began his career in 1982 as a research associate in the laboratory of Human Immunology, “Mario Negri” Institute Milan. In 1985 he joined Board of Clinical Pharmacology, UNIMI. In 1986, he was Associate in Pathology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, USA and in 1991 he joined the Board in Haematology, University of Bari, Italy.
Since 2006 Prof. Alessandro Rambaldi is the Director of the Haematology Unit and the Bone Marrow Transplant Programme and since 2013 he is the Director of the Department of Oncology and Haematology, Ospedale Papa Giovanni XXIII, Bergamo Italy.
In 2016 he became full professor in Haematology at the UNIMI.
Professor Ellen van der Schoot
Head of the Department of Experimental Immunohematology, Sanquin Research
Prof. Ellen van der Schoot is also a Professor in Experimental Immunohematology at the University of Amsterdam.
In June 2019 she was granted an ISBT Award at their opening ceremony. She was praised for her contribution to transfusion research, specifically to blood group genetics and foetal RhD typing, support of the Young Investigator activities of the ISBT and as Scientific Secretary for the ISBT between 2015 and 2018.
In September 2019, she received the James Blundell award from NHSBT.
Between 1989-2004 she was a Senior Investigator at the Dept of Experimental Immunohematology. Her research interests are in the immune response to blood group antigens, in particular Rh antigens cellular therapies, especially hematopoietic stem cell therapy.
Dr Jonas Wadström
Senior Consultant Surgeon, Stockholm
Jonas Wadström is the Professor of Surgery at Weill Cornell.
He is also a Senior Consultant Surgeon at Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar and the Department of Transplantation Surgery at the Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.
He was a member of the R&D Committee from November 2012 - June 2020.
Dr Harvey Klein
Scientist Emeritus at National Institute of Health, Bethesda
Dr. Harvey Klein, known throughout the world as an expert on blood transfusions, retired after a 46-year distinguished career at National Institutes of Health (NIH) where he served as Chief of the Clinical Center in the Department of Transfusion Medicine.
Dr. Klein was a long-standing member of NHSBT’s R&D Committee. He joined the Committee in 1998 and served for a period of 22 years.
His guidance over two decades was essential in steering our R&D Programme.