GAiT Chair Prof. Marc Turner
Medical Director of Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service and Professor of Cellular Therapy, University of Edinburgh.
After graduating from Manchester Medical School, Marc carried out his general professional training in Derby before undertaking specialist training in haematology in Edinburgh.
He was a senior lecturer in immunohaematology and transfusion medicine at the University of Edinburgh before being promoted to Professor of Cellular Therapy.
His research includes immunohaematology, the risk of transmission of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease by blood, tissues and cells and the development of cellular therapies.
Professor Turner was Associate Director of the Centre for Regenerative Medicine from January 2006 to March 2009. During this period he also held clinical posts as Honorary Consultant Haematologist in both the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service and the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.
He became the medical director of the SNBTS in 2011. This followed on from appointments to a number of management posts including Clinical Director of Edinburgh Blood Transfusion Centre (2001), Associate Medical Director, Clinical and Non- Clinical Support Services, Lothian University Hospitals Trust (Nov 2004 to August 2005), Lead Clinical Director, SNBTS (April 2005) and Associate Medical Director, SNBTS (2009).
Professor Turner has also held posts including that of non-executive director and subsequently Chair of the Scottish Stem Cell Network and is currently a non-executive Director of Roslin Cells Ltd and Cell Therapy Catapult.
He has published more than 130 papers and brought a number of cellular therapies to clinical trial and/or practice.
This includes the use of dendritic cells for acute myeloid leukaemia, anti-EBV cytotoxic T lymphocytes for post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder, corneal epithelial stem cells for ocular surface disorders and pancreatic islet cells for unstable diabetes mellitus with hypoglycaemic unawareness.
Professor Turner is an appointed member of the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs.
He has advised the UK blood services and government, as well as the Irish Blood Service and Health Department, the International Plasma Fractionation Association, the European Medicines Agency, the European Communicable Disease Centre, the US Food and Drug Administration TSE Advisory Committee, and the World Health Organisation.
Professor Turner is the lead on the Wellcome Trust-funded programme and an integral part of the SNBTS and SFC-funded projects. Selected publications Setting Up a Haplobank: Issues and SolutionsHarmonizing standards for producing clinical-grade therapies from pluripotent stem cells Toward the development of a global induced pluripotent stem cell library
