Our People
MD, PhD, FRCP, FRCPath
Cedric is a Consultant Haematologist with the NHS Blood and Transplant. He holds the Chair of Transfusion Medicine at the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge University Stem Cell Institute where his research group carries out basic and translational research on the production of blood cells in vitro for human clinical applications.
Cedric qualified as a medical practitioner in 1997 at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles and became a Consultant Haematologist in 2005. He has worked as a clinical Haematologist for the NHSBT since 2005, providing advice on the use of specialist blood products, clinical input into patient transfusion care and advice to blood banks and immuno-haematology diagnostic laboratories.
He obtained his PhD in 2008 entitled “Recombinant antibodies with a modified non-destructive constant region for the treatment of fetomaternal alloimmune thrombocytopenia” during which he developed and tested recombinant antibodies against platelets culminating in a first-in-human trial in 2012.
After a 2 year period as a Clinical Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham supported by an Intermediate Clinical Fellowship of the British Heart Foundation, he took up a tenure post in the Haematology Department of the University of Cambridge in 2010. He obtained the Chair of Transfusion Medicine in 2021.
Cedric’s research group is based at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute. Its avowed aim is to bring in vitro-derived blood cells to clinical use for transfusion. The research spans the basic biology of stem cells and differentiation including pluripotent stem cells and genome editing, translational development and clinical studies. Cedric is the principal investigator on a first-in-human study comparing the survival post-transfusion of donor-derived and manufactured red cells.
Cedric Ghevaert
Cedric obtained his PhD in 2008 entitled “Recombinant antibodies with a modified non-destructive constant region for the treatment of fetomaternal alloimmune thrombocytopenia” he developed and tested recombinant antibodies against platelets culminating in a first-in-human trial in 2012.
PhD
Marloes is a biomedical scientist. She took the findings from her research group at the University of Cambridge and founded a company that took part in Babraham Accelerate 2019-2020. She is now doing business development for a European Innovation Council Transition grant.
Marloes obtained her PhD in 2008 at Sanquin, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She developed the culture of blood platelet progenitors, called megakaryocytes, from stem cells. She showed that these cells form functional platelets in vivo. Next, she attracted two personal fellowships (Rubicon & Marie-Curie) to study gene regulation in these cells at the Department of Haematology at the University of Cambridge. This led to the discovery of novel regulators of platelet formation. She attracted another personal fellowship from the European Hematology Association and a British Heart Foundation project grant to study these novel regulators further.
As an NHS Blood & Transplant Principal Investigator at the University of Cambridge, she discovered that the actin-regulating protein Tropomyosin4 is crucial in the regulation of platelet formation and platelet size. She took this discovery to found a company developing a Tropomyosin4 inhibitor for the treatment of Essential Thrombocythaemia. The company was one of five selected to take part in Babraham Accelerate 2019-2020. Currently, Marloes is developing the business plan for a European Innovation Council Transition grant.
Marloes Tijssen
Marloes obtained her PhD in 2008 at Sanquin, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She developed the culture of blood platelet progenitors, called megakaryocytes, from stem cells. She showed that these cells form functional platelets in vivo.