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UCL appointment to transplant and transfusion safety committee

21 January 2008

Links:

Professor Richard Tedder ucl.ac.uk/research/personal/index?upi=RSTED33" target="_self">Professor Richard Tedder
  • National Blood Service
  • UCL Lunch Hour Lectures

    • In a month when Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced plans for a new 'opt-out' system of organ donation, and news has broken about fears over contaminated blood being given to British servicemen overseas, Professor Richard Tedder, UCL Division of Infection & Immunity, has been appointed to a new committee to advise UK ministers on the safety of blood transfusions and transplants.

    A safe and secure supply of blood, blood components, tissues and organs is vital to the delivery of medicine in the UK. As the government seeks to increase levels of organ donation, there is also a need to allay concerns about the potential transmission of infectious disease through the use of human materials. The committee on Safety of Blood Tissues and Organs (SaBTO), which meets in London for the first time this week, will work to ensure the continued safety of transfusion and transplantation.

    Professor Tedder has been involved in transfusion microbiology for many years, having worked with the late David Dane, who identified the hepatitis B virus particle in the 1970s at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School. Professor Tedder's invention of an HIV test won his group the Queen's Award for British Industry in the 1980s. He is currently a member of the NHS Blood and Transplant transfusion safety committee and serves on the Department of Health's Hepatitis Advisory Group. He is head of the blood-borne virus unit at the Colindale Centre for Infection, which is jointly supported by the Health Protection Agency and the National Blood Service.

    He said: "At a time when there is still concern over the transmission of Variant CJD agent through transfusion, SaBTO will play a crucial role in maintaining public confidence in safe transfusion and transplantation."

    Professor Tedder will also be giving a lunchtime lecture on 31 January, entitled 'Hepatitis B, a neat little virus…'

    To find out more, follow the links at the top of this item.