2025's Research: Wrapped!
Research is a fundamental part of what we do at Anthony Nolan. Without research, we wouldn’t be able to advance the science behind stem cell transplants or investigate new cell therapies to help make sure more patients survive and thrive after treatment.
Our teams of scientists and doctors work in our purpose-built Research Institute (ANRI) and also at transplant centres and laboratories across the country. Our research covers everything from the very earliest stages of a transplant – like how to match patients with the best donors – to how we can make transplant recovery kinder for patients.
This year has seen 26 active research projects, 23 publications in scientific journals, and over 20 researchers presenting their work at international conferences. Within these numbers are the stories of our achievements over the past year – some of which we’ll highlight in this year’s Research: Wrapped!
Standout publications: Paving the way to new discoveries
Publications in scientific journals are the bread-and-butter of the research world – the best way of sharing discoveries and establishing the quality of our work with the international research community.
Some of our highlight publications from the year include two from our Patient Reported Outcomes Research team, who have continued to uncover how a transplant impacts on patients’ wellbeing. Their work demonstrates the importance of measuring quality of life in the months and years after the transplant day so we can work to make sure patients have the support they need during recovery. We’re especially well-placed to conduct this research as we work closely with both patients and healthcare providers.
The Patient Reported Outcomes Research team
In the world of new cell therapies, we conducted some exciting research into the properties of natural killer cells – a type of cancer-fighting immune cell – that can be found in umbilical cord blood. This research discovered optimal ways to process umbilical cord blood units to select ones with the most active cells, potentially helping to accelerate the development of new cellular therapies that use natural killer cells to treat cancer. This research is due to be published in the next few weeks.
We also published first-of-its-kind research about a quirk of genetics that, if better understood, could improve the accuracy of genetic matching between patients and donors for transplant. This work was also presented at a major genetics conference where it prompted useful discussions within the field. More accurate matching means more successful transplants for patients, making this an exciting area of work. You can read more about it here.
Bioinformatics research scientist Richard Natarajan presenting at the EFI conference in Prague
Another highlight is an upcoming publication about the IPD-IMGT/HLA Database, which is a crucial cornerstone of global transplant science managed by our Bioinformatics team. The publication is due to appear in the invite-only annual database issue of the Nucleic Acids Research journal, where we have had some of our most-viewed research published. The paper highlights improvements that have been made to the way the database works. You can read an early access version of the paper here.
Milestones: New patients and new machines
We’ve marked one year since we opened recruitment for our landmark study into quality of life following a stem cell transplant: SEQoL. Standing for Scaled collection of socioEconomic and Quality of Life data, SEQoL is the UK’s largest study aiming to understand the impact of a stem cell transplant on quality of life – including things like physical symptoms, mental wellbeing, and financial stresses.
SEQoL also aims to go beyond that by measuring how quality of life is influenced by socioeconomic factors like education, employment, income and living arrangements, which will help us identify gaps in transplant care and support. We are now recruiting in 19 transplant centres across the UK, and have recruited over 480 patients to take part of our target of 700. Read more about the study here.
Another milestone this year was upgrading our trusty genetic sequencer ‘Selasi,’ that helped our teams sequence nearly 11,000 samples over the past five years – amounting to 4 billion individual nucleotides (the ‘A’s, ‘G’s, ‘T’s and ‘C’s of DNA). The new machine, nicknamed ‘Suzanne,’ represents a remarkable upgrade – able to process data about ten times faster and taking up significantly less space in our labs. This will help ensure that we can stay on the cutting edge of sequencing technology and keep up with the demands of the Patient/Donor project, which contributes to major advances in stem cell transplant practice. You can read more about the upgrade here.
The old genetic sequencer 'Selasi' (left) next to the upgraded machine 'Suzanne' (right)
A new cell collection centre to supercharge our research
As well as continuing our several long-running research projects, we are always looking for new opportunities to expand our research to cover more opportunities to improve stem cell transplants.
Our recently opened Anthony Nolan Cell Collection Centre means we will have the potential to conduct our own research aimed at improving the donation process. One such project involves attempting to predict which donors are more likely to require a second donation day to collect enough cells for transplant. Led by Dr Tania Dexter, this work has the potential to free up more donation slots and get more donations to their recipients on time – read more here.
Celebrating successes for our scientists
Outside of our wider research projects, the individual accomplishments within our teams are also worth spotlighting!
PhD student Jonathan Lucas achieved success in UCL’s Three Minute Thesis competition, condensing his work into a short talk and a single presentation slide. His project presentation – on his work to improve genetic matching for patients in need of a transplant – advanced him through the first and second rounds of the competition. Although he wasn’t the ultimate victor in the grand final, the fact he made it so far in the competition illustrates how well he summarised a complex project that has clear impact for patients.
Another of our PhD students, Anna Etzenberger, was awarded a travel grant from the Cord Blood Association allowing her to attend a major conference in San Diego. There, she presented her work on cells called Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSCs) found in cord blood that could be used to help treat graft versus host disease (GvHD) in people who have received a stem cell transplant.
Our director of immunogenetics and research services Dr Neema Mayor was admitted as a fellow to the Royal College of Pathologists. This is a welcome acknowledgement of all Dr Mayor’s achievements in the field of immunogenetics, illustrating the impact her work has had for stem cell transplant patients.
Dr Neema Mayor, director of immunogenetics and research services
Another milestone was Dr Steven Cox’s 35th anniversary at Anthony Nolan. First starting work with us as a laboratory assistant, he worked his way up to performing groundbreaking research that has contributed to our understanding of transplants and immunity. His current work investigates the possibility of new cell therapies that could potentially treat relapse after a stem cell transplant.
Keeping patients at the core of what we do
Our research is ultimately about improving stem cell transplants for patients, so we’re also determined to keep patients’ voices central to our work.
We’ve established a Research Review Board involving both patients and donors to help review plans for new research projects, and our Patient Involvement Group has contributed to several research projects that involve collecting patient experiences and viewpoints. These groups help ensure that our research actively involves patients, to make sure it answers the questions most important to them.
This year also saw our researchers meeting some of the patients who are benefitting from their work! Alyssa, who received a world-first cell therapy derived from cells from an Anthony Nolan donor, visited our research institute and spoke to our researchers about her aspirations to become a cancer researcher. And Florence, Pride of Britain winner and one-of-a-kind influencer visited our Cell Therapy Centre in Nottingham where her cord blood had previously been prepared for her stem cell transplant! It’s visits like these that help remind us of the importance of our work, and the impact of sharing our research with wider audiences.
To wrap it all up
Ultimately, our research is more than what we can condense into a few highlights. The projects that make up the backbone of our research are running all the time, and every day our researchers add to the foundations that underpin our understanding of stem cell transplants.
Anthony Nolan’s research is helping to build a future where every patient who needs a stem cell transplant or cell therapy can survive and thrive.