New books Blood, Plague and Smallpox: The story of the Elstree Laboratory Elstree is synonymous with the movie industry, but it also has another tale to tell – over 120 years as a life science innovator. A former farm, land across the reservoir built by French prisoners during the Napoleonic wars, became a series of laboratories under the Lister Institute of Preventative Medicine. The work was varied, but pathogen safety and nutrition came to dominate the researchers before the greatest success was achieved through a pivotal role in the global eradication of smallpox. From Lister sprung the Blood Products Laboratory, a global innovator in plasma products (including immunoglobulins and the world’s first factor VIII for the treatment of haemophilia). The Lister Institute is no longer active in producing medicines and BPL has a new life as part of Kedrion BioPharma. Yet the legacy remains, and the three central elements are captured by this book’s title – Blood, Plag...
Professor Tim Sandle, PhD - pharmaceutical microbiologist, writer and journalist