T. J. Hamblin
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates
Terence John Hamblin (12 March 1943 – 8 January 2012) was a British academic and scientist who was professor of immunohaematology at the University of Southampton from 1987 until his death.
Life and career
Born in Worcester, England, Hamblin's early years were spent in Aldershot in Hampshire where he and his family lived on Cambridge Road; he was educated at Farnborough Grammar School (1954–1961)<ref>Hamblin's memories of Farnborough Grammar School</ref> and the University of Bristol.<ref name=Tele/>
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 a Guernsey Fellowship for stem cell transplantation in 1986 and the Binet-Rai Medal for outstanding research in CLL in 2002.<ref name=Tele/>
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–)Template:Clarification needed and a columnist for the comic/medical political magazine World Medicine (1976–84).<ref name=Tele/>
His most important research discovery , with Professor Freda Stevenson, 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Hamblin presented the BBC 2 episode 'Of Mice and Men' (1998) in its Counterblast series, in which he argued for the use of animals in medical research.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
He publicised 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. He claimed in a 1981 BMJ paper that the belief in spinach having a high iron content was due to a decimal point error that was discovered in the 1930s;<ref>Hamblin, T.J.(1981) Fake! British Medical Journal Vol. 283.19–26 December. pp.1671-1674</ref> Mike Sutton published an article in 2010 questioning Hamblin's story.<ref>Sutton, M. (2010) Spinach Iron and Popeye: Ironic lessons from biochemistry and history on the importance of healthy eating, healthy scepticism and adequate citation Template:Webarchive. Internet Journal of Criminology</ref> In a later article, Sutton discovered that, contrary to popular belief, Hamblin was not the original source of the spinach decimal error myth.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Hamblin died on 8 January 2012 of cancer.<ref name=Tele>Obituary for Professor Terry Hamblin - The Telegraph - 24 January 2012</ref>