Terence John Hamblin (12 March 1943 – 8 January 2012) was a British academic and scientist who was professor of

immunohaematology Immunohematology is a branch of hematology and transfusion medicine which studies antigen-antibody reactions and analogous phenomena as they relate to the pathogenesis and clinical manifestations of blood disorders. A person employed in this field ...

at the

University of Southampton The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...

from 1987 until his death.

Life and career

Born in

Worcester, England Worcester ( ) is a cathedral city in Worcestershire, England, of which it is the county town. It is south-west of Birmingham, north of Gloucester and north-east of Hereford. The population was 103,872 in the 2021 census. The River Severn f ...

, Hamblin's early years were spent in

Aldershot Aldershot ( ) is a town in the Rushmoor district, Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme north-east corner of the county, south-west of London. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Farnborough/Aldershot built-up are ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

where he and his family lived on Cambridge Road; he was educated at Farnborough Grammar School (1954–1961) and the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

. He was appointed as Consultant Haematologist in Bournemouth in 1974. He pursued a research career in

haematology Hematology ( spelled haematology in British English) is the branch of medicine concerned with the study of the cause, prognosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases related to blood. It involves treating diseases that affect the production ...

and

immunology Immunology is a branch of biology and medicine that covers the study of Immune system, immune systems in all Organism, organisms. Immunology charts, measures, and contextualizes the Physiology, physiological functioning of the immune system in ...

, successively becoming an expert in

plasma exchange Plasmapheresis (from the Greek πλάσμα, ''plasma'', something molded, and ἀφαίρεσις ''aphairesis'', taking away) is the removal, treatment, and return or exchange of blood plasma or components thereof from and to the blood circulati ...

stem cell In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can change into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of cell ...

transplantation,

monoclonal antibody A monoclonal antibody (mAb, more rarely called moAb) is an antibody produced from a cell lineage made by cloning a unique white blood cell. All subsequent antibodies derived this way trace back to a unique parent cell. Monoclonal antibodie ...

therapy,

myelodysplastic syndrome A myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is one of a group of cancers in which blood cells in the bone marrow do not mature, and as a result, do not develop into healthy blood cells. Early on, no symptoms typically are seen. Later, symptoms may includ ...

and

chronic lymphocytic leukaemia Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a type of cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow. In CLL, the bone marrow makes too many lymphocytes, which are a type of white blood cell. In patients with CLL, B cell lymphocytes can begin to ...

. He was awarded a Guernsey Fellowship for stem cell transplantation in 1986 and the Binet-Rai Medal for outstanding research in CLL in 2002. 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 , with Professor Freda Stevenson, was that chronic lymphocytic leukaemia comes in two forms, depending on whether the

immunoglobulin An antibody (Ab) or immunoglobulin (Ig) is a large, Y-shaped protein belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily which is used by the immune system to identify and neutralize antigens such as pathogenic bacteria, bacteria and viruses, includin ...

heavy chain variable region genes contain

somatic mutation A somatic mutation is a change in the DNA sequence of a somatic cell of a multicellular organism with dedicated reproductive cells; that is, any mutation that occurs in a cell other than a gamete, germ cell, or gametocyte. Unlike germline muta ...

s. If they do, the survival of the patient averages 25 years; if they do not, the survival of the patient averages 8 years. Hamblin presented the

BBC 2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and d ...

episode 'Of Mice and Men' (1998) in its ''Counterblast'' series, in which he argued for the use of animals in medical research. He publicised the fact that, contrary to popular belief,

spinach Spinach (''Spinacia oleracea'') is a leafy green flowering plant native to Central Asia, Central and Western Asia. It is of the order Caryophyllales, family Amaranthaceae, subfamily Chenopodioideae. Its leaves are a common vegetable consumed eit ...

contains no more

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

than

lettuce Lettuce (''Lactuca sativa'') is an annual plant of the family Asteraceae mostly grown as a leaf vegetable. The leaves are most often used raw in Green salad, green salads, although lettuce is also seen in other kinds of food, such as sandwiche ...

, while pink succulent

lobster Lobsters are Malacostraca, malacostracans Decapoda, decapod crustaceans of the family (biology), family Nephropidae or its Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on th ...

contains none at all; like all

invertebrate Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordata, chordate s ...

s its

respiratory pigment A respiratory pigment is a metalloprotein that serves a variety of important functions, its main being O2 transport. Other functions performed include O2 storage, CO2 transport, and transportation of substances other than respiratory gases. There ...

is based on

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

rather than iron. He claimed in a 1981 ''

BMJ ''The BMJ'' is a fortnightly peer-reviewed medical journal, published by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, which in turn is wholly-owned by the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world' ...

'' paper that the belief in spinach having a high iron content was due to a decimal point error that was discovered in the 1930s; Mike Sutton published an article in 2010 questioning Hamblin's story. In a later article, Sutton discovered that, contrary to popular belief, Hamblin was not the original source of the spinach decimal error myth. Hamblin died on 8 January 2012 of cancer.Obituary for Professor Terry Hamblin
- ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...

'' - 24 January 2012

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamblin, T.J. 1943 births 2012 deaths Academics of the University of Southampton Alumni of the University of Bristol Deaths from cancer in England British haematologists Medical doctors from Aldershot