Dirk de Korte receives prestigious James Blundell Award

Sanquin scientist Dirk de Korte received the prestigious James Blundell Award at the conference of the British Blood Transfusion Society in Glasgow from 13 to 15 September 2022. James Blundell was a 19th century English gynecologist who pioneered in the field of blood transfusion. The Award named after him was introduced in 1984 and is given to scientists who have made a significant contribution to medical or scientific knowledge in the field of blood transfusion.

Dirk de Korte received the prize for his contribution to blood transfusion in general and in particular for his contributions to improving the quality and safety of blood products. For the presentation during the Award meeting, he chose to present the development of allogeneic serum eye drops at Sanquin. In recent years, De Korte and his team have worked at Sanquin to develop eye drops from donor blood serum, which are a solution for people who suffer from very dry eyes. From the idea in 2014, it quickly moved through lab trials and the clinical trial to the availability of the first serum eye drops to patients in May 2019.

In addition to researching the serum eye drops, the team also worked together with the company muDrop on an innovative dropper that minimizes wastage of the precious serum. This dropper has now also been investigated in a clinical study, where it was shown that mini drops work just as well as the standard drops. Soon the serum eye drops will therefore also be available in the muDrop dropper.

By receiving the Award, Dirk joins a list of illustrious predecessors, including various Sanquin scientists, such as Pim van Aken, Paul Engelfriet, Anneke Brand and Ellen van der Schoot. After the presentation at the Award meeting, there was a festive presentation of the glass plaque accompanying the Award during the evening gala dinner in the Science Museum. Dirk: “I am very honored to receive this award and was completely surprised when I received the letter inviting me to come to the BBTS congress to receive this Award. I ended up in a row of giants with important contributions to developments in blood transfusion and experienced it as the grand finale after already having a fantastic farewell symposium last year. In my speech I also indicated that I did not deserve this prize solely on my own, but thanks to my teachers and the collaboration with many, and that they are acknowledged with this too, while the prize also puts Sanquin in the spotlight.”