Share this page on these sites
About us
Dr Chris Hatton| | Dr Anna Schuh| | Dr Shirley Henderson|
Our team
John Old, BSc, PhD, FRCPAth
Dr John Old is a consultant clinical scientist, director of the National Haemoglobinopathy Reference Laboratory (NHRL), and a Reader in Haematology for Oxford University. The NHRL was established in 1982 by the DH to carry out first trimester prenatal diagnosis for the haemoglobinopathies, following the first report of prenatal diagnosis of a genetic disorder by chorionic villi DNA analysis.
Before this Dr Old was a postgraduate research scientist in Professor Sir David Weatherall's laboratory for eight years at Oxford University and the MRC Unit of Molecular Haematology. He has collaborated with many international laboratories on thalassaemia research and helped diagnostic centres in India and Cyprus to set up screening and prevention programmes. He has published 150 research papers and articles / book chapters on the molecular basis of the thalassaemias and the diagnosis of globin gene mutations. He has held many professional appointments, including Vice-President of the Royal College of Pathologists, a Director of the Board of Clinical Pathology Accreditation (UK) Ltd and Council Member of the Health Professions Council.
Dr Chris Hatton is a Consultant Haematologist at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust where he is the lead clinician for lymphoma and is chair of the regional Thames Valley Cancer Network (TVCN) for clinical haematology.
Dr Chris Hatton has a strong interest in the diagnosis of lymphoproliferative disease by flowcytometry and leads the immunophenotyping service of the TVHMDS. His research interests include the immune response to lymphoma and MicroRNA expression in lymphoid malignancies. He is member of the NRCI Low Grade Lymphoma group and is a trustee for the National Lymphoma Association.
Dr Anna Schuh was appointed as a haematology consultant in Oxford in 2007. She has been actively involved in setting up an integrated haemato-diagnostic service for leukaemias and lymphomas including molecular techniques. Her particular clinical and research interest is with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. She was awarded an intermediate clinician scientist award with the LRF to develop translational research into leukaemia propagating cells in B-CLL. In addition, she participates in early Phase I/II and Phase III clinical trials for B-CLL.
Dr Schuh graduated from Cologne Medical School, Germany, in 1994 following an MD thesis under the direction of Professor Volker Diehl. She pursued general medical training and specialist training in the UK. Between 2000 and 2005 she was funded as a Marie Curie Fellow and a Leukaemia Research Fund (LRF) Clinical Research Fellow for research into fundamental aspects of stem cell haemopoiesis in Paris and Oxford (Catherine Porcher’s laboratory, MHU, WIMM).
Dr Shirley Henderson is a principal clinical scientist and deputy scientific director of the TVHMDS. She initially trained as a biomedical scientist at Stafford before moving onto Leicester Royal Infirmary, where she gained expertise in all aspects of general diagnostic haematology including the development and introduction of haemopoietic progenitor cell culture assays for the bone marrow transplant unit. She then spent 5 years as chief biomedical scientist at King’s College Hospital London, where she had responsibility for the red cell unit. During this time she worked closely with Professor Alistair Bellingham to pioneer the research, development and introduction of the first universal haemoglobinopathy neonatal screening programme in the UK. She also developed an interest in molecular diagnostics and gained a Masters in Medical Molecular Biology.
She then relocated to Oxford and completed a PhD thesis in Molecular Genetics with Professor Bryan Sykes at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, before moving to the National Haemoglobinopathy Reference Laboratory where she became deputy director. She has a keen interest in all aspects of haemoglobinopathies and their diagnosis but particular areas of interest are alpha thalassaemia, prenatal diagnosis and fetal haemoglobin expression in adults.