Our Fellow, Professor Allan Victor Hoffbrand FMedSci, has won the Grand International Award at the Sultan Bin Khalifa International Thalassemia Awards 2018.
Professor Hoffbrand is Emeritus Professor of Haematology at the Royal Free Hospital and School of Medicine. This award marks a long and distinguished career, becoming the Royal Free’s first Professor of Haematology in 1973 and over subsequent decades dedicating his career to shaping the hospital into a world-leading centre for haematology.
The biannual Grand International Award recognises an individual’s life-long major scientific contribution towards improving the quality of life of people with thalassemia and other haemoglobin disorders. The award is an initiative of the Sheikh Sultan Bin Khalifa Al Nahyan Humanitarian & Science Foundation.
The awards recognise excellence in thalassaemia research and treatment in a range of categories, for both individuals and organisations from the United Arab Emirates and around the world, and will be presented in April at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi.
Thalassemia is one the world’s commonest inherited blood disorders: left untreated, it causes severe anaemia that kills before the age of 3. Worldwide there are approximately 500 million carriers of the disease, with an estimated 1 in 100 couples worldwide at risk of having a child with the disorder. Although the disease can now be managed through regular transfusions, around 3000 people with thalassemia die each year before reaching adulthood.
Professor Hoffbrand’s work has been instrumental in both developing our understanding of the basic biology of the disease, and also teaching and training a generation of haematologists who have gone on to found research centres around the world.
For more information, please visit the Sultan Bin Khalifa International Thalassemia Awards website.