Dr Nevin Hughes-Jones FRS

Nevin Hughes-Jones conducted important studies of the kinetics of antigen - antibody reactions, applied to red blood cells. He was the first to devise a method for quantitating red blood cell antibodies in absolute terms (micrograms per millilitre) - a development which was of considerable importance, since it made it possible to discover the minimum dose of anti-rhesus (anti-Rh) needed for the suppression of Rh immunisation and thereby greatly facilitated the extension of anti-Rh treatment to all women at risk of immunisation following pregnancy. Nevin also made important quantitative studies of the activation of the classical complement pathway. He showed that the binding of C1q is not necessarily accompanied by C1 activation and went on to identify the conditions of C1 binding that do result in C1 activation, thus making a real contribution to understanding of the way in which antigen - antibody reactions lead to complement activation.

Dr Nevin Hughes-Jones FRS
Elected 1985