Vox Sanguinis Standing Committee
The Vox Sanguinis Standing Committee is responsible for the management of the operational activities of Vox Sanguinis, the Society journal. The Standing Committee functions as a link between the ISBT Board and the Vox Sanguinis Editorial Board.
The Vox Sanguinis Standing Committee activities include:
- The selection of the journal publisher and oversight of the necessary contracts;
- Appointment of the Editor-in-Chief and, on the advice of the Editor-in-Chief, the Section Editors of the Journal;
- Ensuring appropriate declaration of conflicts from the Editor-in-Chief who will in turn assure appropriate conflict of interest declaration from the editorial team.
- The Standing Committee is not responsible for the scientific content of the Journal. This responsibility rests with the Editor-in-Chief advised by the Section Editors.
- The Standing Committee advises and consults with the Editor-in-Chief regarding substantive changes to the journal, appearance, content or delivery.
- The Standing Committee receives annual reports from the Editor-in-Chief and from the publishers.
Members of the Vox Sanquinis Standing committee include Gwen Clarke (ISBT Secretary General and Chair), Lin Fung, and John Semple (ISBT members) and Eric Jansen (ISBT Treasurer). A representative of the publisher, Miquel Lozano the Editor in Chief of Vox Sanguinis and the ISBT Executive Director are invited to the committee as observers.
Members of the Standing Committee
Gwen Clarke
Secretary General (2018-2026)
ISBT Secretary General, Chair of the Vox SC; Clinical Professor, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
Gwen Clarke is a physician with training at the University of Alberta and at Emory University. She has clinical and research interests in perinatal immunohematology and experience as a hospital transfusion medicine physician and with the Canadian blood supplier. Her current role with Canadian Blood services includes medical leadership for perinatal and immunohematology reference laboratories, consultation in donor testing and for the Rare Blood Program. Gwen is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the University of Alberta. She is a former program director for residency training in Hematopathology and an examiner for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Gwen has recently completed a term as president of the Canadian Society for Transfusion Medicine.
Lin Fung
ISBT President Elect (2024-2026)
Lin Fung is the Associate Professor in Medical Laboratory Science at the University of the Sunshine Coast. She has worked in tertiary hospital pathology laboratories, led research teams at the Australian Blood Service and University of Queensland, and was the Chair of the ISBT Granulocyte Immunobiology Working Party. She serves on two hospital blood management committees and has an active interest in translational transfusion research. This led her to set up the OptiBlood research team, which runs studies directed at optimising the patient’s blood and use of blood products. Lin enjoys public speaking, facilitating collaborations, mentoring young scientists and is an advocate for evidence based transfusion practice.
Martin Smid
Martin Smid, MD Medicine, PhD, MBA, has more than 25 years’ experience in blood bank management, transfusion medicine and coagulation. He is managing director of Sanquin Consulting Services and director of the Academic Institute IDTM. He has been a member of the ISBT WP Global Blood Safety from the start in 2010 and was chair from 2018 till 2023. In essence, the WP develops solutions for the low resource environment with already available knowledge. The stepwise access to safe plasma products initiative is a good example. Martin’s main responsibilities include international cooperation and knowledge sharing in international projects and the Management of Transfusion Medicine programme at the Graduate School of Medical Science of the University of Groningen. He has over 60 publications, mainly in the area of blood products and transfusion medicine. In 2024 he was awarded the AATM excellence award.
John Semple
Professor Semple joined St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto in 1990 and became Head of the Toronto Platelet Immunobiology Group and a Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Toronto. In 2016, he moved to Lund University where he is currently a Professor of Transfusion Medicine and Group Leader in Platelet Immunology. In addition to being the recipient of many awards, he is a member of several organizations and has delivered over 200 presentations at international meetings. He currently serves on the editorial boards of Haematologica, Transfusion, AOB and the Scandinavian Journal of Immunology. His primary research interests include understanding the immunopathogenesis of immune thrombocytopenia (ITP); his laboratory’s pioneering work originally described the helper T cell abnormalities and Th1 skewing in patients with ITP. His lab also focuses on the pathogenic mechanisms that lead to Transfusion-Related Acute Lung Injury (TRALI) and was one of the first to describe Toll-like Receptor (TLR) expression on platelets. He has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed publications in the area of ITP, platelet immunology and TRALI.
