The Bone Marrow Transplant community mourned the loss of one of its founding members in James (Jim) Biggs on 22 April 2023. Jim was a pioneer of stem cell transplantation in Australia who mentored hundreds of haematologists, nurses and scientists over his 60 year career in Haematology.

Jim was born in Sydney, Australia where he was educated at St Pius College and Sydney University. He graduated with Honours from his medical degree in 1955 and commenced residency at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney. He married Margaret Hayes in 1955 with whom he had 5 children. He obtained Membership of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 1959 (later Fellowship, FRACP). He took up a position as a Fellow in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine in Oxford and worked with Professor L J Witts and Dr Sheila Callender. He undertook a research project on “Some Effects of Altered Thyroid Function in the Rat with particular reference to the Haemopoietic and Alimentary Systems” for which he was awarded a Doctorate of Philosophy (D.Phil., Oxon.), in April 1962. During his time in Oxford a Welcome Foundation Research Grant supported his studies.

The Biggs family returned to Sydney in April 1962 and James was appointed as an Honorary Physician at the Mater Hospital, North Sydney and at St Vincents Hospital, Darlinghurst and soon after as a research Scholar in the newly completed Garvan Institute. Jim subsequently devoted a large proportion of his life to St Vincent’s Hospital where he established the Haematology Department in 1965. He was appointed as a fulltime staff specialist in Haematology at St Vincents’ in 1965 and was appointed an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of New South Wales in 1980.

Jim was a passionate advocate of combining clinical and laboratory haematology and was instrumental in establishing a new training programme incorporating clinical and laboratory components for new graduates wishing to specialise in Haematology, so that they would become proficient in clinical medicine, laboratory work and have some exposure to research. This dual training scheme is still in operation in Australia and New Zealand. Jim believed that “no branch of clinical practice relies so completely on laboratory methods as haematology, and no aspect of laboratory medicine is more closely linked to clinical practice”.

From 1975, Jim’s major research endeavour was in the role of Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT) in the treatment of serious disease, such as acute leukaemia. The Unit was the first of its kind in Australasia and received referrals from all states of Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia. The first patient transplanted was in 1975 and in keeping with international experience at the time, initial results were encouraging in aplastic anaemia whilst challenges remained for acute leukaemia [1]. Along with Kerry Atkinson, David Ma, Tony Dodds, Allan Concannon and later Sam Milliken the unit was a pioneer in the field of bone marrow transplantation in Australia. The unit published several seminal manuscripts on the early use of cyclosporine, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) and ganciclovir. Jim, with his colleagues from the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry (IBMTR), was one of the first haematologists to understand the power of the graft versus leukaemia effect even in the context of refractory disease [2]. His later career in stem cell transplantation focussed on the role of the procedure in autoimmune diseases – his 1997 review of the field with John Snowden and Peter Brooks set the scene for an expansion of the field internationally [3].

Jim was a leader in haematology in Australia in other ways and was an Australian delegate on the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry and served as President of the Haematology Society of Australia and the Transplant Society of Australia and New Zealand from 1973 to 1975. Jim published more than 200 papers in peer reviewed journals and served on the Editorial Committees of several journals and was a Councillor on the International Society of Haematology. Jim’s contributions to BMT and Haematology were recognised by the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) with a Clinical Achievement Award presented at the annual meeting in Frankfurt in 2019.

Jim was also driven to establish philanthropic and medical links between Australia and its neighbours in the South-East Asian region. With colleagues, he launched the Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific in New York in 1965 and an office was opened in Sydney in 1968. Subsequently, Jim was asked to be Chairman of the Australian branch, which was incorporated as the “Australian Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific” in 1982. He remained in this position for twenty years and with the help of his wife, Margaret and many supporters, the organisation was able to carry out grass root projects as part of a worldwide group with offices in several Pacific countries as well as the USA and UK. In 1992, an office was opened in Vietnam where a major project to prevent Dengue fever was initiated.

Jim is survived by his second wife, Dr. Elena Shklovskaya and four of his five children. His first wife, Margaret died from lung cancer in 1997 and he tragically lost his son, Bernard in 1975. Despite these setbacks, he felt “very lucky to be with Elena and to have four surviving adult children, eight grandchildren and four great grandchildren who are all making significant contributions to Society”. In 1999, Jim was awarded an Order of Australia (AM) for medical research and overseas aid. He will be sorely missed by the medical community in Australia and will be remembered as a strong advocate for the curative power of stem cell transplantation and the humanity of compassionate care.