Renowned haematologist and pioneer of stem cell therapies receives prestigious national society award

Professor John Snowden, Consultant Haematologist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, has been presented with an award from the British Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation & Cellular Therapy for outstanding services to patients and the transplant community.

Presented at the society’s annual educational meeting in London, the award recognises his significant and lasting contributions to the field, including leadership roles in the UK and European professional societies and NHS England, along with groundbreaking research and quality improvement initiatives.

Professor Snowden has dedicated his career to improving outcomes for patients with blood cancers, immune and genetic disorders through the delivery of stem cell transplantation.

The complex and intensive medical intervention, which involves wiping out a patient's diseased bone marrow and immune system with intensive chemotherapy (and sometimes radiotherapy) and then rebuilding it with blood stem cells, remains one of the most effective treatments for patients with certain types of leukaemia and other cancers, as well as serious immune system and genetic disorders, where there is limited chance of cure or long-term disease control with other treatments.

As director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy Programme in Sheffield for over 20 years, Professor Snowden has played key roles in delivering blood stem cell transplantation and cellular therapy procedures to patients across the region, including re-engineered CAR T-cells to attack and kill cancer.

In collaboration with Professor Sharrack and neurosciences colleagues, he has also been a pioneer of autologous stem cell transplantation for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), and currently leads the national ‘Star-MS trial’ which aims to define the role of stem cell transplantation in severe relapsing remitting MS.

Professor John Snowden, Consultant Haematologist, director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy Programme in Sheffield and Honorary Professor at the University of Sheffield, said: “I am honoured to receive this national recognition. The use of stem cell transplantation and cellular therapies has developed into highly effective treatments for patients with blood cancers and serious immune and genetic disorders. Here in Sheffield, we are a large specialist centre with an excellent track record of successfully managing complex stem cell transplantations for many conditions. With the advent of CAR-T and gene-editing cellular therapies, there are so many exciting current developments and much to build on in the coming years for the benefit of our patients in the region and beyond.

“I am very proud to accept the award, but this achievement is only possible by being a part of the fantastic team in Sheffield and working closely with the national and international networks and societies. I am also extremely grateful to our Sheffield research teams and funders, and my sincere thanks goes to the many patients whose contributions are fundamental to all progress in this evolving field of medicine.”

Professor Snowden’s clinical trials and other research have been supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Sheffield Clinical Research Facility, the University of Sheffield’s Clinical Research Trials Unit and the Sheffield Clinical Research and Innovation Office, with funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), Blood Cancer UK, Cancer Research UK, Anthony Nolan, Myeloma UK, and Sheffield Hospitals Charity. To find out more about the ‘Star-MS’ trial, including eligibility and participating UK sites, please click here.