David Dane

David Maurice Surrey Dane, MRCS CRCP MB Bchir MRCP MRCPath FRCPath FRCP (25 March 1923 – 9 April 1998) was a pre-eminent British pathologist and clinical virologist known for his pioneering work in infectious diseases including poliomyelitis and the early investigations into the efficacy of a number of vaccines. He is particularly remembered for his strategic foresight in the field of blood transfusion microbiology, particularly in relation to diseases that are spread through blood transfusion.

Through his research, Dane was instrumental in developing and producing robust and sensitive reagents for the screening of blood donors in the UK blood transfusion services. This greatly reduced the risk of post-transfusion hepatitis. Dane’s interest in developments in transfusion microbiology enabled him to advise on important public health decisions from the 1960s right up until his death in 1998.

During the later part of his professional career he and his Department of Virology at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School were renowned for diagnostic precision irrespective of whether this involved dated technology, for example immunodiffusion (ID) or complement fixation tests (CFT), or state-of-the-art technology including radioimmunoassay (RIA) and electron microscopy (EM). Whatever investigations were carried out were expected to be precise, accurate, reproducible and of clinical relevance. Provided by Wikipedia