A life-long quest to understand and treat genetic blood disorders.

This year's Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science is conferred on Sir David Weatherall for his 50 years of dedication to biomedical research, his groundbreaking discoveries about genetic blood diseases, and his life-long passion for bringing improved medical care to the developing world.

Historical review: a history of the British Journal of Haematology.

The British Journal of Haematology has now been in existence for 65 years. In this time it has served the international community as well as British haematology and has become increasingly international in its outlook. Its changing content has mirrored the changes in haematology over more than six decades, particularly with an increasing emphasis on haematological neoplasms and their treatment.

Kostmann's disease or severe hereditary neutropenia-the man behind the syndrome.

Seventy years ago, the Swedish pediatrician Rolf Kostmann (1909-1982) was the first to report on a previous unknown lethal hereditary neutropenia in infants, Kostmann's disease. This essay presents the man behind the syndrome rather than focusing on the disease itself.

Karl Landsteiner: The Discovery of the ABO Blood Group System and its Value for Teaching Medical Students.

With his discovery of the ABO blood group system, Karl Landsteiner laid the foundation for modern day transfusion medicine. This discovery represents the basic knowledge for every blood transfusion. In recent years, certain blood groups have been linked to an increased risk for certain diseases. Hence, teaching the blood group serology is a relevant issue in medical education. In this review, we report about the history of the discovery of the blood groups by Landsteiner, the link of different blood groups to certain diseases and our experiences regarding teaching to medical students.

Erythrokinetics: quantitative measurements of red cell production and destruction in normal subjects and patients with anemia.

To study erythropoiesis and anemia, one must have a firm foundation of indices that accurately measure red blood cell production and destruction. This paper, authored by hematology legends Arno G. Motulsky and Clement A. Finch, provides that foundation. Using methods that would not be approved in today's environment, the authors studied a cohort of normal healthy patients and an equal number of patients with different forms of anemia. The results confirm a reciprocal model of red cell production and destruction, show that anemia can be the result of either underproduction (a regenerative anemia or ineffective erythropoiesis) or increased destruction, and define parameters for distinguishing these 2 possibilities that are still widely used today.

Gus Born: Scientific Reflections of Later Years, Inspiring the Next Generation of Blood Researchers.

I am delighted to have been be asked by Steve Watson to write a short piece for this series in Platelets, on my friendship with Prof Gus Born which began in 2011, when he came to Cardiff to present at our UK Platelets meeting. Gus was an insipiration, his story resonates today and it is an honour to have the opportunity to record a summary of our meetings here.

British Journal of Biomedical Science in 2017: What have we learned?

In 2017 the British Journal of Biomedical Science published 35 articles in the various disciplines that comprise biomedical science. These were 6 reviews, 22 original articles, 6 'In Brief' short reports and one guideline. Of these, the majority were in clinical chemistry (one review, six data papers), microbiology (one review, four data papers), cellular pathology (four data papers) and virology (one review, two data papers). There were two data papers in transfusion science, whilst haematology, cytopathology and immunology were each represented by one review and one data paper. Reflecting the increasing complexity of the laboratory, five data papers crossed barriers between traditional disciplines, and so may be described as multidisciplinary. The present report will summarise key aspects of these publications.

Blood at 70: its roots in the history of hematology and its birth.

This year we celebrate Blood's 70th year of publication. Created from the partnership of the book publisher Henry M. Stratton and the prominent hematologist Dr William Dameshek of Tufts School of Medicine, Blood has published many papers describing major advances in the science and clinical practice of hematology. Blood's founding antedated that of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) by more than 11 years and Stratton and Dameshek helped galvanize support for the creation of ASH. In this review, I place the birth of Blood in the context of the history of hematology before 1946, emphasizing the American experience from which it emerged, and focusing on research conducted during World War II. I also provide a few milestones along Blood's 70 years of publication, including: the growth in Blood's publications, the evolution of its appearance, the countries of submission of Blood papers, current subscriptions to Blood, and the evolution of topics reported in Blood's papers. The latter provides a snapshot of the evolution of hematology as a scientific and clinical discipline and the introduction of new technology to study blood and bone marrow. Detailed descriptions of the landmark discoveries reported in Blood will appear in later papers celebrating Blood's birthday authored by past Editors-in-Chief.

Pediatric sickle cell disease: past successes and future challenges.

Once a fatal disease of childhood, more than 95% of patients born today with sickle cell disease (SCD) in developed countries are expected to survive into adulthood, largely because of improvements in supportive and preventive care (newborn screening, penicillin prophylaxis, transcranial Doppler (TCD) screening). Hydroxyurea (HU) therapy, the only oral medication currently available to prevent SCD complications, has become more widespread over the past 20 y. The NHLBI recommends that HU be offered to all patients with HbSS beginning at 9 mo of age, and the recently published Abnormal TCD with Transfusions Changing to HU (TWiTCH) trial has shown HU as an acceptable alternative to transfusion therapy for patients at high risk of stroke. While hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) is a curative option for SCD, less than 25% of patients have a suitable donor. Alternative stem cell sources from unrelated donors and haplo-identical donors are currently under investigation as are gene therapy trials. This review will focus on early efforts to elucidate SCD pathophysiology as well as supportive and preventive care improvements. Findings from recent multi-center studies (Silent Infarct Transfusion (SIT) Trial and TWiTCH) will be summarized. Finally, HSCT trials and gene therapy will be reviewed.

[Raúl B. Etcheverry, M.D. (1909-2014)]. / Dr. Raúl Etcheverry Barucchi (1909-2014).

Professor Raúl B. Etcheverry, M.D., was a founder of Chilean Hematology back in the 1940's and a practicing physician and teacher until an advanced age. Being a superb clinician, he was admired by his ability to unveil from the most common to the most difficult diagnosis of blood disorders and neoplasms by examining blood smears and cytology samples. He trained in Hematology a large number of physicians and technicians coming from several countries in Latin America as well as from Chile. Besides medicine, he conducted seminal studies to unveil ethnic characteristics of the original inhabitants of Chile identifying blood groups and other genetic markers in mummies and in current living descendants, from Northern and Southern Chile and from Easter Island. He was a prominent scholar that was awarded high titles and distinctions from the University of Chile, the Chilean Academy of Medicine, the Chilean Government, and several hematological societies from Chile and other countries. After 104 years of fruitful life, he passed away leaving a vast number of disciples and admirers.