John Raymond Hobbs
Encyclopedia
John Raymond Hobbs MRCS
, FRCP
, FRCPath
, FRCPaed
(17 April 1929 – 13 July 2008) was a professor who was at the forefront of the techniques of Clinical Immunology, Protein Biochemistry and Bone Marrow Transplantation, specifically in Child Health.
. He was the third son of four male children of a soldier’s family. His family moved around considerably due to his father’s career in the British Army
. The family eventually settled in his father's home town of Plymouth
in the county of Devon
. During the Second World War, John, along with his three brothers Frederick, William
and Dennis, were evacuated from blitz
-torn Plymouth
to Penzance
. He left school at 16 and worked as a pathology
laboratory assistant and did his National Service
in Egypt with the British Army Medical Corp
s. After National Service, John used the money he had saved from his army sergeant’s pay to put himself into Plymouth
and Devonport
Technical College where he achieved an External Inter.B.Sc. within 9 months, gaining a state scholarship
to study medicine, where he chose the Middlesex Hospital
in London and won 7 prizes. From 1968–1996 Dr Hobbs received 4 national prizes, 15 international awards and 4 honorary fellowships
He specialised in Pathology
and in 1963 was appointed consultant at Hammersmith Hospital
, London. In 1970 he was appointed as Professor of Chemical Pathology at Westminster Medical School. In the early 1970’s Professor Hobbs’s Westminster team were doing ground breaking work. In 1970 the world’s first successful intended stem cell
transplant for a previously fatal human disease. In 1971 the first British Bone Marrow Transplant using bone marrow
from a matching sibling. In the following year a transplant was successful using the bone marrow from father to son. In April 1973 Professor Hobbs and his team were able to achieve the world's first bone marrow transplant using a matched but unrelated volunteer donor. With the success of this procedure steps were taken by professor Hobbs's team to set up the world's first unrelated bone marrow donor register. The tissue typing specialist of the team, Dr David James, was instrumental in the setting up and the administration of this ground breaking register which was later named after Anthony Nolan
. It established the future use of unrelated donors to patients, so far for over 10,000 people. This initiative was the blue print which would be copied around the world. The Westminster team completed 285 transplants before it and its specialist unit’s sudden, unexpected, enforced closure, effectively in autumn of 1992. Tragically, this left a waiting list of children with virtually nowhere else in Britain to go for treatment of their genetic diseases and inborn errors. However Professor Hobbs had founded the COrrection of GEnetic diseases by Transplantation or COGENT movement, with a charitable trust which attracted £13 million 1971–2007. The remaining balance, with the assistance of the late Professor Anthony Oakhill, was used to create a new unit at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in the city of Bristol
, and so allowing work to be continued. It is now headed by Dr Colin Steward MA (Cantab), BM, BCh (Oxon), PhD (Bristol), FRCPCH, FRCP.. As for the children who were treated by Professor Hobbs’s bone marrow team at the Westminster hospital, most of these children now enjoy full lives as adults.
, Poland, Uruguay
, Hong Kong, China and Peru
.
Throughout 30 years as a recognised teacher Dr Hobbs encouraged his juniors. 134 university higher degrees were achieved by trainees for work completed within the departments he headed; 48 full university chairs have been awarded to such staff; 70 have become members or fellows of the royal College of Pathologists (including 18 non-medical); 12 scientific staff were helped to medical degrees; together with 42 students contemporary with his daughters.
Hobbs, J. R. Displacement bone marrow transplantation and immunoprophylaxis for genetic diseases.Adv. Intern. Med. 33 (1987) 81–118
126 Valdimarrson, J.H., Higgs, J.M., Wells, R.S., Yamamura, M, Hobbs, J.R., Holt, P.J. Immune abnormalities associated with chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis, (1973) Cell Immunol. 6, 348–61
144 Ezeoke, A., Ferguson, N, Fakhri, O, Hekkens, W and Hobbs, J.R. Antibodies in the sera of celiac patients which can co-opt K-cells to attack gluten-labelled targets (1974) in W Hekkens, A.S. Pena (eds) Coeliac Disease, Stenfert Kroese/Leiden, pp 176–188
174 Hobbs, J.R., Barrett, A, de Souza, I., Morgan, L., Raggatt, P., Salih, H., Selection of anti-hormonal therapy of some cancers (1975) in D Minzuni et al. (eds) Host Defense Against Cancer and Its Potentiation, Univ of Tokyo Press, Tokyo/Univ. Park Press/Baltimore, pp 451–6
204 Hobbs J.R., Encouragement from research on the cancer of the individual patient (1977) in R.W. Raven, Outlook on Cancer, Plenum/London, pp 147–162
319 Hobbs J.R., AIDS (1984) letter B.J. Hosp. Med. 32:51
448 Hobbs J.R., The use of volunteer unrelated donors in J R Hobbs (ed) Correction of certain genetic diseases by transplantation, 1989, COGENT/London 1989: 147–158
484 Henderson D.C., Sheldon J., Riches P.G., Hobbs J.R. Cytokine induction of neopterin production, Clin Exp Immunol 1991; 83: 479–482
497 Wang Q., Rowbottom A., Riches P.G., Dadian G., Hobbs J.R. Combined detection of phenotype and Y chromosome by immunoenzymelabelling and in situ hybridisatin on peripheral lymphocytes, J Immunol Methods 1991; 139: 251–5
547 Hobbs J.R., Wang Q., Henderson D.C., Downie C., Obaro S., Busulphan-cyclophosphamide induction used twice with 9/12 successes in the second bone-marrow transplant, COGENT 1992; 2: 127–135
630 Hobbs J.R., Further aspects of human immunoglobulin A deficiency, Ann Clin Biochem 2007; 44: 496–7
Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons
MRCS is a professional qualification for surgeons in the UK and IrelandIt means Member of the Royal College of Surgeons. In the United Kingdom, doctors who gain this qualification traditionally no longer use the title 'Dr' but start to use the title 'Mr', 'Mrs', 'Miss' or 'Ms'.There are 4 surgical...
, FRCP
Royal College of Physicians
The Royal College of Physicians of London was founded in 1518 as the College of Physicians by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518 - the first medical institution in England to receive a royal charter...
, FRCPath
Royal College of Pathologists
The Royal College of Pathologists, founded in 1962, was established to co-ordinate this development and maintain the internationally renowned standards and reputation of British pathology. Today the College advises on a vast range of issues relating to pathology...
, FRCPaed
Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in London is responsible for the training of postgraduate doctors in paediatrics and conducting the MRCPCH membership exams. They also conduct the Diploma in Child Health exam, which is taken by many doctors who plan a career in General Practice...
(17 April 1929 – 13 July 2008) was a professor who was at the forefront of the techniques of Clinical Immunology, Protein Biochemistry and Bone Marrow Transplantation, specifically in Child Health.
Early life
John Hobbs was born in AldershotAldershot
Aldershot is a town in the English county of Hampshire, located on heathland about southwest of London. The town is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council...
. He was the third son of four male children of a soldier’s family. His family moved around considerably due to his father’s career in the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
. The family eventually settled in his father's home town of Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
in the county of Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
. During the Second World War, John, along with his three brothers Frederick, William
William G. Hobbs
William George Reginald Hobbs was born on 16 May 1927 at Whitegates in Alderney, Channel Islands.-Early life:His family moved around considerably due to his father’s career in the British Army. The family eventually settled in his fathers home town of Plymouth in the county of Devon...
and Dennis, were evacuated from blitz
The Blitz
The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...
-torn Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
to Penzance
Penzance
Penzance is a town, civil parish, and port in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is approximately 75 miles west of Plymouth and 300 miles west-southwest of London...
. He left school at 16 and worked as a pathology
Pathology
Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....
laboratory assistant and did his National Service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
in Egypt with the British Army Medical Corp
Royal Army Medical Corps
The Royal Army Medical Corps is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all British Army personnel and their families in war and in peace...
s. After National Service, John used the money he had saved from his army sergeant’s pay to put himself into Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
and Devonport
Devonport, Devon
Devonport, formerly named Plymouth Dock or just Dock, is a district of Plymouth in the English county of Devon, although it was, at one time, the more important settlement. It became a county borough in 1889...
Technical College where he achieved an External Inter.B.Sc. within 9 months, gaining a state scholarship
State Scholarship (UK)
A State Scholarship was a financial scholarship award for university entrants based on Scholarship Level exam results. Although the award was based on exam performance, the amount received was means-tested.-History:...
to study medicine, where he chose the Middlesex Hospital
Middlesex Hospital
The Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, United Kingdom. First opened in 1745 on Windmill Street, it was moved in 1757 to Mortimer Street where it remained until it was finally closed in 2005. Its staff and services were transferred to various sites...
in London and won 7 prizes. From 1968–1996 Dr Hobbs received 4 national prizes, 15 international awards and 4 honorary fellowships
Medicine
Pathology
Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....
and in 1963 was appointed consultant at Hammersmith Hospital
Hammersmith Hospital
Hammersmith Hospital is a major teaching hospital in West London. It is part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and is associated with the Imperial College Faculty of Medicine...
, London. In 1970 he was appointed as Professor of Chemical Pathology at Westminster Medical School. In the early 1970’s Professor Hobbs’s Westminster team were doing ground breaking work. In 1970 the world’s first successful intended stem cell
Stem cell
This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...
transplant for a previously fatal human disease. In 1971 the first British Bone Marrow Transplant using bone marrow
Bone marrow
Bone marrow is the flexible tissue found in the interior of bones. In humans, bone marrow in large bones produces new blood cells. On average, bone marrow constitutes 4% of the total body mass of humans; in adults weighing 65 kg , bone marrow accounts for approximately 2.6 kg...
from a matching sibling. In the following year a transplant was successful using the bone marrow from father to son. In April 1973 Professor Hobbs and his team were able to achieve the world's first bone marrow transplant using a matched but unrelated volunteer donor. With the success of this procedure steps were taken by professor Hobbs's team to set up the world's first unrelated bone marrow donor register. The tissue typing specialist of the team, Dr David James, was instrumental in the setting up and the administration of this ground breaking register which was later named after Anthony Nolan
Anthony Nolan
Anthony Nolan is a UK charity that focuses on leukaemia and Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. It manages and recruits donors to one of the two bone marrow registers in the United Kingdom; the other register is the British Bone Marrow Registry run by the National Blood Service...
. It established the future use of unrelated donors to patients, so far for over 10,000 people. This initiative was the blue print which would be copied around the world. The Westminster team completed 285 transplants before it and its specialist unit’s sudden, unexpected, enforced closure, effectively in autumn of 1992. Tragically, this left a waiting list of children with virtually nowhere else in Britain to go for treatment of their genetic diseases and inborn errors. However Professor Hobbs had founded the COrrection of GEnetic diseases by Transplantation or COGENT movement, with a charitable trust which attracted £13 million 1971–2007. The remaining balance, with the assistance of the late Professor Anthony Oakhill, was used to create a new unit at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in the city of Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, and so allowing work to be continued. It is now headed by Dr Colin Steward MA (Cantab), BM, BCh (Oxon), PhD (Bristol), FRCPCH, FRCP.. As for the children who were treated by Professor Hobbs’s bone marrow team at the Westminster hospital, most of these children now enjoy full lives as adults.
Passing on his Knowledge
Dr Hobbs became an enthusiastic and accomplished teacher and accepted invitations to lecture (over 30 endowed) in 58 different countries (in over half of Europe’s medical schools, 25 in the USA and over 30 of the Commonwealth universities)He was given the status of visiting professor on over 25 occasions and he contributed to many international meetings and committees. He was re-invited many times and Presidential status was awarded to him in 5 different scientific meetings. He acted as an advisor to Health Ministers in RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Poland, Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
, Hong Kong, China and Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
.
Throughout 30 years as a recognised teacher Dr Hobbs encouraged his juniors. 134 university higher degrees were achieved by trainees for work completed within the departments he headed; 48 full university chairs have been awarded to such staff; 70 have become members or fellows of the royal College of Pathologists (including 18 non-medical); 12 scientific staff were helped to medical degrees; together with 42 students contemporary with his daughters.
Achievements
- In Protein biochemistry – proved females treated for iron deficiency achieved the male normal range for haemoglobin blood levels; the preexisting ‘normal’ ranges for females were no longer acceptable.
- From monitoring the Myeloma Trials, the first to describe the natural history of myelomatosis and helped in 1971 to set up the Protein Reference Units which save the national health service £3million each year. Dr John Hobbs retired as PRU chairman in 1994.
- Established the first non-invasive screening test of the newborn to detect those affected by cystic fibrosis 1968
- As Chairman of the Expert Panel on Proteins of the International Federation of Clinical Chemists (1971–1979) created International standards for many serum proteins.
- Developed successful uses of human tumour markers
- In Clinical Immunology,
- Standardised methods and reagents (some for WHO) to provide normal ranges from 12 weeks gestation to old age for caucasian populations
- Immunoglobolin levels.
- Responses to candida albicans.
- Complement activation.
- Mixed lymphocyte reaction T-cell receptors.
- Phagocyte function.
- First to fully describe IgA deficiency.
- IgM deficiency selective deficiency to staphylococci.
- Early to recognise a circulating subset of T-cells co-optable through Fc-receptors to become killer cells.
- Defined secondary deficiencies of B-cells> and T-cells and their possible treatments predictable by cytofluorometry
- In Bone Marrow Transplantation he had been taught at Registrar level, by the late Dr Joseph G Humble at Westminster Hospital in 1959–61 and was a volunteer donor of 500 ml of his own bone marrow (under anaesthesia) to be used for research purposes. When he returned in 1970 as head of chemical Pathology and Immunology he created the Westminster Children’s Bone Marrow Team and lead it until 1992 in its pioneering work to treat 133 children with otherwise fatal genetic diseases. The team became so skilled that, of their last 56 transplants from matched family donors, all survived for over 100 days (a criterion for safety of the procedure). From matched unrelated donors 91% survived over 100 days. By 1992 these results were probably among the best in the world. The improvements in bone marrow transplantation introduced by Westminster have been published
- In Current Contents 1972, Dr John Hobbs was one of 11 British medical doctors included in a list of ‘The World’s top 1,000 scientists’.
Family
John Raymond Hobbs was third eldest of four brothers. He was also the father of three daughters and eight grandchildren.Publications (some of 630)
7. Hobbs J.R., Bayliss, R.I.S., MacLagan, N.F. The routine use of 132-I in the diagnosis of thyroid disease (1963) Lancet, i, 8–13.(M.D. Thesis, London)Hobbs, J. R. Displacement bone marrow transplantation and immunoprophylaxis for genetic diseases.Adv. Intern. Med. 33 (1987) 81–118
126 Valdimarrson, J.H., Higgs, J.M., Wells, R.S., Yamamura, M, Hobbs, J.R., Holt, P.J. Immune abnormalities associated with chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis, (1973) Cell Immunol. 6, 348–61
144 Ezeoke, A., Ferguson, N, Fakhri, O, Hekkens, W and Hobbs, J.R. Antibodies in the sera of celiac patients which can co-opt K-cells to attack gluten-labelled targets (1974) in W Hekkens, A.S. Pena (eds) Coeliac Disease, Stenfert Kroese/Leiden, pp 176–188
174 Hobbs, J.R., Barrett, A, de Souza, I., Morgan, L., Raggatt, P., Salih, H., Selection of anti-hormonal therapy of some cancers (1975) in D Minzuni et al. (eds) Host Defense Against Cancer and Its Potentiation, Univ of Tokyo Press, Tokyo/Univ. Park Press/Baltimore, pp 451–6
204 Hobbs J.R., Encouragement from research on the cancer of the individual patient (1977) in R.W. Raven, Outlook on Cancer, Plenum/London, pp 147–162
319 Hobbs J.R., AIDS (1984) letter B.J. Hosp. Med. 32:51
448 Hobbs J.R., The use of volunteer unrelated donors in J R Hobbs (ed) Correction of certain genetic diseases by transplantation, 1989, COGENT/London 1989: 147–158
484 Henderson D.C., Sheldon J., Riches P.G., Hobbs J.R. Cytokine induction of neopterin production, Clin Exp Immunol 1991; 83: 479–482
497 Wang Q., Rowbottom A., Riches P.G., Dadian G., Hobbs J.R. Combined detection of phenotype and Y chromosome by immunoenzymelabelling and in situ hybridisatin on peripheral lymphocytes, J Immunol Methods 1991; 139: 251–5
547 Hobbs J.R., Wang Q., Henderson D.C., Downie C., Obaro S., Busulphan-cyclophosphamide induction used twice with 9/12 successes in the second bone-marrow transplant, COGENT 1992; 2: 127–135
630 Hobbs J.R., Further aspects of human immunoglobulin A deficiency, Ann Clin Biochem 2007; 44: 496–7
See also
- John's Brother, Canadian artist William G. HobbsWilliam G. HobbsWilliam George Reginald Hobbs was born on 16 May 1927 at Whitegates in Alderney, Channel Islands.-Early life:His family moved around considerably due to his father’s career in the British Army. The family eventually settled in his fathers home town of Plymouth in the county of Devon...
.