José Alejandro Madrigal Fernández

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The University of Tartu has conferred the degree of Honorary Doctor of Medicine on Professor José Alejandro Madrigal Fernández for his long-standing collaboration and significant contribution to the development of haematology and bone marrow transplantation at the University of Tartu.

José Alejandro Madrigal Fernández was born on 4 November 1953 in Mexico City. He received his MD in 1979 from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and completed his medical residency in internal medicine in 1983. In the same year, he received a fellowship from the World Health Organization to work in the laboratory of Prof. Edmond J. Yunis, an immunology and cancer specialist at Harvard University. In 1985, he received a fellowship from the British institution Imperial Cancer Research Fund to take up doctoral studies in molecular genetics at the University of London and the University of Oxford. In 1989, he defended his PhD in immunogenetics at the University of London. From 1989 to 1993, Madrigal Fernández held a postdoctoral fellowship position at Stanford University.

Madrigal Fernández is a world leader in the area of immunotherapy and stem cell transplantation. In 1993, he was appointed the Head of Research at the prestigious Anthony Nolan Research Institute in London and, in 1995, was promoted to become its first Scientific Director. The Anthony Nolan Trust was established in 1974 and was the world's first international bone marrow donor registry created to treat leukaemia and other cancers. Under his leadership, the Trust developed into a world-renowned research institute specialising in haematological and bone marrow transplantation.

In 1997, Madrigal Fernández was elected Professor of Haematology at University College London. He has authored more than 500 articles in top-level journals such as Nature, Nature Genetics, Lancet, Journal of Experimental Medicine and PNAS (cited 15,677 times, h-index 65). His research has contributed to changing the course of immune cell therapy and stem cell transplantation worldwide. He has spoken at more than 580 conferences in more than 58 countries and 243 cities and trained more than two hundred doctors and scientists. His tireless work has helped create donor registries and umbilical cord banks around the world.

Madrigal Fernández is a distinguished member of prestigious academies of science in Mexico, Spain, Latin America, Russia, Poland, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. He has received three doctor honoris causa titles and been elected President of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. He is an Honorary Member of the British Society of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, the Center for International Bone Marrow Transplantation Research in the USA, an Honorary Member of the German, Austrian and Swiss Societies of Haematology and Medical Oncology, and the National Academy of Medicine of Mexico. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Pathologists and the UK Academy of Medical Science. Madrigal Fernández has helped improve lives around the world. The "Save the Children" projects, with his participation, have reached more than 2.6 million children, ensuring immunisation and necessary treatment. In 2022, he was awarded the Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by her Majesty the Queen of Britain, Elizabeth II.

Development work with the University of Tartu has had a special place in the activities of José Alejandro Madrigal Fernández. He has significantly contributed to developing haematology and haematopoietic stem cell transplantation at the University of Tartu since Estonia regained its independence. He actively helped create the residency programme in haematology at the University of Tartu and develop it to meet international standards and has visited and trained University of Tartu researchers and students. He has internationally recognised and highlighted the achievements of Estonia and the University of Tartu in the field of haematology.