Terry J. Hamblin has been professor of Immunohaematology

Immunohaematology

Immunohematology, more commonly known as blood banking is a branch of hematology which studies antigen-antibody reactions and analogous phenomena as they relate to the pathogenesis and clinical manifestations of blood disorders. A person employed in this field is referred to as an immunohematologist...

 at the University of Southampton

University of Southampton

The University of Southampton is a British public university located in the city of Southampton, England, a member of the Russell Group. The origins of the university can be dated back to the founding of the Hartley Institution in 1862 by Henry Robertson Hartley. In 1902, the Institution developed...

, United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 since 1987. Born in Worcester, England, he was educated at the University of Bristol

University of Bristol

The University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...

.

He was appointed as Consultant Haematologist in Bournemouth in 1974. He pursued a research career in haematology and immunology

Immunology

Immunology is a broad branch of biomedical science that covers the study of all aspects of the immune system in all organisms. It deals with the physiological functioning of the immune system in states of both health and diseases; malfunctions of the immune system in immunological disorders ; the...

, successively becoming an expert in plasma exchange, 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...

 transplantation, monoclonal antibody therapy, myelodysplastic syndrome and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. He was awarded Guernsey Fellowship for stem cell transplantation in 1986 and the Binet-Rai medal for outstanding research in CLL in 2002.

He was a prolific author of books, chapters, original peer-reviewed articles, reviews, editorials, and web articles on scientific and medical topics. He was editor of the scientific journal Leukemia Research (1986-) and a columnist for the comic/medical political magazine World Medicine (1976-84).

His most important research discovery was that chronic lymphocytic leukaemia comes in two forms, depending on whether the immunoglobulin heavy chain variable region genes contain somatic mutations. If they do the survival of the patient averages 25 years; if they do not, the survival of the patient averages 8 years.

Hamblin publicized the fact that, contrary to popular belief, spinach

Spinach

Spinach is an edible flowering plant in the family of Amaranthaceae. It is native to central and southwestern Asia. It is an annual plant , which grows to a height of up to 30 cm. Spinach may survive over winter in temperate regions...

 contains no more iron

Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...

 than lettuce

Lettuce

Lettuce is a temperate annual or biennial plant of the daisy family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable. It is eaten either raw, notably in salads, sandwiches, hamburgers, tacos, and many other dishes, or cooked, as in Chinese cuisine in which the stem becomes just as important...

, while pink succulent lobster

Lobster

Clawed lobsters comprise a family of large marine crustaceans. Highly prized as seafood, lobsters are economically important, and are often one of the most profitable commodities in coastal areas they populate.Though several groups of crustaceans are known as lobsters, the clawed lobsters are most...

 contains none at all; like all invertebrate

Invertebrate

An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...

s its respiratory pigment

Respiratory pigment

A respiratory pigment is a molecule, such as hemoglobin in humans, that increases the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood. The four most common invertebrate respiratory pigments are hemoglobin, haemocyanin, haemerythrin and chlorocruorin...

 is based on copper

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

 rather than iron. He claimed in a 1981 BMJ

BMJ

BMJ is a partially open-access peer-reviewed medical journal. Originally called the British Medical Journal, the title was officially shortened to BMJ in 1988. The journal is published by the BMJ Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Medical Association...

paper that the belief in spinach having a high iron content was due to a decimal point error that was discovered in the 1930s; Mike Sutton

Mike Sutton (criminologist)

Michael "Mike" Sutton is the originator of the Market Reduction Approach to theft. Described by Marcus Felson as classic research and as a simple idea, Sutton's MRA has had a significant influence upon theory and practice regarding stolen goods markets and markets for other illicit commodities...

published an article in 2010 questioning Hamblin's story.