Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Dr. JJ van Loghem (In Memoriam)

Whether we know it or not, lifelong blood bankers have many names buried in our consciousness just from seeing them over and over again. For me, one such name was "van Loghem."

JJ (Joghem) van Loghem died on August 3, 2005. Dr. van Loghem was the scientific director of the Central Laboratory of the Netherlands Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service (CLB) from 1950–78 and was the president of several organizations, including the Society of the Netherlands Cancer Institute.

Among Dr. van Loghem's many accomplishments:
  • First person to detect what is now known as human platelet antigen 1a, alloantibodies to which are the most common cause of neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (NAIT) in Caucasians
  • One of the founders of Vox Sanguinis (formerly Bulletin of the CLB, founded in1951)
  • Served as Vox Sang's first editor (1956–1960)
  • Awarded the AABB Karl Landsteiner Memorial Award in 1964

JJ van Loghem truly was one of transfusion medicine's pioneers. To read more about his extraordinary life, if you are an AABB member, see his obituary in Transfusion Nov. 2005; 45(11):1823.

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