About OCH
The Oxford Centre for Haematology was launched in 2018 and spans the University of Oxford and the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. As a virtual Centre, it brings together researchers and clinicians working in haematology to improve the understanding and treatment of blood diseases and disorders, and to deliver the best available care to patients.
The Director of the Oxford Centre for Haematology, Prof Paresh Vyas, talks about the vision for the Centre.
Over the last 40 years the University of Oxford has built an international reputation in haematology research built on the red cell and globin work pioneered by Professor Sir David Weatherall, Professors John Clegg and Doug Higgs.
Building on this, over the last decade Oxford has developed world-leading research programmes in haemopoiesis and blood cancers. Basic and translational research in blood cancers has promoted, and benefitted from, an increasingly competitive clinical research programme in the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Oxford now has the largest blood cancer clinical trials program in the UK, with links to national and international cancer centres, clinical trial groups and industry.
As part of the Radcliffe Department of Medicine and embedded within the Nuffield Division of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, the goal of the OCH is to transform outcomes for patients across a range of blood disorders and diseases. It will consolidate and strengthen haematology across the University and Trust, promoting and integrating basic, translational and clinical research in haemopoiesis as well as acquired and inherited blood disorders. It will develop new research activities in blood cancers, ageing of the haemopoietic system and the links with inflammation and immunity, as well as promoting new collaborations and novel training opportunities across the spectrum of research and clinical practice.