Ellen van der Schoot received James Blundell Award

Sanquins professor Ellen van der Schoot received a prestigious award from the British Blood Transfusion Society for her research in the field of transfusion medicine.

On 19 September 2019, Sanquin researcher professor Ellen van der Schoot received the James Blundell award from the British Blood Transfusion Society (BBTS). Ellen received this award in recognition of the outstanding medical and scientific contribution she made over many years in the field of blood transfusion.

Blood typing

Ellen is an expert in many areas. She has done ground breaking work in the field of DNA testing for blood groups. She is now working on a DNA chip that can be used to type donors. The Sanquin divisions of Research, Diagnostic Services and Blood Bank are all involved in her research. All that knowledge of blood, blood types, transfusion and DNA enables translation into innovative diagnostics and treatments . Often Ellen’s research projects resulted in tests that are actually implemented for patient care. Such as the tests for rhesus babies during pregnancy.

First blood transfusion

The James Blundell award is named after the English physician who performed the first successful transfusion of human blood to a patient for treatment of a haemorrhage in 1818. Ellen received the award during a gala dinner from Bill Chaffe, president of BBTS. Earlier that day, she delivered the James Blundell Award Lecture during the BBTS annual congress in Harrogate. In this lecture "Immunohaematology: old problems, new solutions", she looked back at the research she performed during many years at Sanquin.

In June this year, Ellen already received the ISBT award in for her contribution to research in the field of transfusion medicine.