Bernard joined NIBSC in 2000 after working in the plasma products industry for eight years and working as a biomedical scientist in pathology. During his time at NIBSC he has worked on over 20 new and replacement standards projects.
He’s currently study director for albumin solutions and responsible for the Independent Control Testing of over 300 batches each year. Over the years he has supported batch release testing of albumin and immunoglobulin products by developing new test methods to improve product safety. For example, one method has now been adopted as a Ph Eur test method to control the levels of anti- A, anti-B and anti-D in immunoglobulin products.
He is jointly responsible for a portfolio of over 40 standards covering immunoglobulins/antibody quantitation, serological/blood grouping, haemoglobin, haematinics and auto-immunity.
He is also product supervisor for our CE marked anti-D and anti-c products.
His main research interests are antibody characterisation and the development of polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies with diagnostic and/or therapeutic potential.
Publications
Fox, B., Hockley, J. and Studholme, L. (2020). The British Standard for (European Conformity[CE] Marked) Anti-D: Its rarely discussed but important role in quantitating anti-D in patient plasma. Transfusion Medicine 30(1): 75-77.
Fox, B. J., Hockley, J., Rigsby, P., Dolman, C., Meroni, P. L. and Rönnelid, J. (2019). A WHO Reference Reagent for lupus (anti-dsDNA) antibodies: international collaborative study to evaluate a candidate preparation. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases 78(12): 1677-1680.
Fox, B., Sharp, G., Atkinson, E., Roberts, G., Rigsby, P. and Studholme, L. (2019). The third international standard for anti-D immunoglobulin: international collaborative study to evaluate candidate preparations. Vox Sanguinis 114(7): 740-748.
Fox, B. (2018). International collaborative study to calibrate proposed 3rd WHO international standard for anti-D immunoglobulin. Transfusion Medicine 28(S1): (PO42) 41.
Sandra Prior, Simon E. Hufton, Bernard Fox, Thomas Dougall, Peter Rigsby, Adrian Bristow & participants of the study. International standards for monoclonal antibodies to support pre- and post-marketing product consistency: Evaluation of a candidate international standard for the bioactivities of rituximab. mAbs. 2018; 10(1), 129-142.
S. J. Thorpe, B. Fox, G. Sharp, J. White and C. Milkins. A WHO reference reagent to standardize haemagglutination testing for anti-A and anti-B in serum and plasma: International collaborative study to evaluate a candidate preparation. Vox Sanguinis. 2016; 111(2), 161-170.
Sandrine Vessillier, David Eastwood, Bernard Fox, Sethu Swaminathan, Jean Sathish, Susan Thorpe, Robin Thorpe, Richard Stebbings. Journal of Immunological Methods. Cytokine release assays for the prediction of therapeutic mAb safety in first-in man trials - Whole blood cytokine release assays are poorly predictive for TGN1412 cytokine storm. Journal of immunological methods 2015; vol. 424, 43-52.
Daniel M Reed, Koralia E Paschalaki, Richard D Starke, Nura A Mohamed, Giles Sharp, Bernard Fox, David Eastwood, Adrian Bristow, Christine Ball, Sandrine Vessillier, Trevor T Hansel, Susan J Thorpe, Anna M Randi, Richard Stebbings, Jane A Mitchell. An autologous endothelial cell-PBMC assay that detects cytokine storm responses. The FASEB Journal 2015; vol. 29 no. 6 2595-2602
Sandrine Vessillier, David Eastwood, Bernard Fox, Sethu Swaminathan, Jean Sathish, Susan Thorpe, Robin Thorpe, Richard Stebbings. Glycophorin a blocks the response to TGN1412 in whole blood cytokine release assays. Toxicology Letters 09/2014; 229:S207-S208.
Susan J. Thorpe, Alan Heath, Bernard Fox, Dina Patel and William Egner.The 3rd International Standard for serum IgE: international collaborative study to evaluate a candidate preparation. Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine. Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine. 05/2014; 52(9).
Boyle, J., Thorpe, S. J., Hawkins, J. R., Lockie, C., Fox, B., Matejtschuk, P., Halls, C., Metcalfe, P., Rigsby, P., Armstrong-Fisher, S., Varzi, A. M., Urbaniak, S. and Daniels, G. (2012), International reference reagents to standardise blood group genotyping: evaluation of candidate preparations in an international collaborative study. Vox Sanguinis. 2013;104:144-152
Christina Ball, Bernard Fox, Simon Hufton, Giles Sharp, Stephen Poole, Richard Stebbings, David Eastwood, Lucy Findlay, Paul W.H.I. Parren, Robin Thorpe, Adrian Bristow, and Susan J. Thorpe. Antibody C Region Influences TGN1412-Like Functional Activity In Vitro. The Journal of Immunology 2012; vol. 189 no.12 5831-5840
Findlay, L., Sharp, G., Fox, B., Ball, C., Robinson, C.J., Bird, C., Stebbings, R., Thorpe, S.J. Endothelial cells co-stimulate peripheral blood mononuclear cell responses to monoclonal antibody TGN1412 in culture. Cytokine 2011; 55 (1), 141-151
SJ Thorpe, B Fox, G Sharp, AB Heath, M-E Behr-Gross, E Terao, ML Virata-Theimer and MW Yu. International collaborative study to evaluate candidate reference reagents to standardise haemagglutination testing for anti-A and anti-B in normal intravenous immunoglobulin products. Vox Sanguinis 2009; 97, 160-168.
SJ Thorpe, C Ball, B Fox, KM Thompson, R Thorpe and A Bristow. Anti-Rh D and anti-i activities are inseparable in V4-34-encoded monoclonal anti-Rh D: the same framework 1 residues are required for both reactivities. Transfusion 2008; 48, 930-940.
R Stebbings, L Findlay, C Edwards, C Bird, D North, D Eastwood, Y Mistry, P Dilger, E Liefooghe, I Cludts, B Fox, G Tarrant, J Robinson, T Meager, C Dolman, S Thorpe, A Bristow, M Wadhwa, R Thorpe, S Poole. TGN1412 “Cytokine Storm” in the Phase 1 Trial of monoclonal antibody TGN1412: better understanding the causes to improve preclinical testing of immunotherapeutics. Journal of Immunology 2007; 179: 3325-3331
SJ Thorpe, B Fox, A Heath, M-E Behr-Gross, ML Virata and MW Yu. International collaborative study to establish immunoglobulin (anti-D test) BRP Batch 1. Pharmeuropa Bio 2006; 1: 49-56.
SJ Thorpe, B Fox, AB Heath, M Scott, M de Haas, S Kochman and A Padilla. International Standards for minimum potency of anti-A and anti-B blood grouping reagents: evaluation of candidate preparations in an international collaborative study. Vox Sanguinis 2006; 91: 336-344.
SJ Thorpe, B Fox, A Heath, M-E Behr-Gross, ML Virata and MW Yu. International collaborative study to assess candidate reference preparations to control the level of anti-D in IVIG for use in Europe and the United States. Biologicals 2006; 34: 209-212.
SJ Thorpe, B Fox, AB Heath, M Scott, M de Haas,S Kochman, A Padilla. An international standard for minimum potency of anti-D blood grouping reagents: evaluation of a candidate preparation in an international collaborative study. Vox Sanguinis 2006; 90: 131-139.
Thorpe, S.J , Fox, B, Heath, A, Dolman, C , Virata, M.L , Yu, M.W , Thorpe, R. International collaborative study to evaluate a candidate reference preparation to define an appropriate specified limit of anti-D in intravenous immunoglobulin products. Vox Sanguinis 2005; 88: 278-287.
SJ Thorpe, BJ Fox, CD Dolman and R Thorpe. Anti-A and anti-B activity in batches of different intravenous immunoglobulin products determined using a direct haemagglutination method. Biologicals 2005; 33/2: 111-116.
SJ Thorpe, D Sands, B Fox, G Schäffner, MW Yu and M-E Behr-Gross. Collaborative study for establishment of a global standard for the potency assay of human anti-D immunoglobulin. Pharmeuropa Bio 2003-2, 9-26
SJ Thorpe, D Sands, B Fox, M-E Behr-Gross, G Schäffner and MW Yu. A global standard for anti-D immunoglobulin: international collaborative study to evaluate a candidate preparation. Vox Sanguinis 2003; 85: 313-321
SJ Thorpe, BJ Fox, CD Dolman, J Lawrence and R Thorpe. Batches of intravenous immunoglobulin associated with adverse reactions in recipients contain atypically high anti-Rh D activity. Vox Sanguinis 2003; 85: 80-84
SJ Thorpe, B Fox, C Turner and M Scott. Competitive enzyme-linked immunoassay of IgG monoclonal anti-D. Transfusion Medicine 2003; 13: 153-159
Thorpe SJ, Fox B & Sands D: A Stable Lyohilized Reagent for Use in a Potential Reference Assay for Quantitation of Anti-D in Immunoglobulin Products. Biologicals 2002; 30: 315-321
Fox BJ: Kinetics of Anti-D binding to Rh D+ erythrocytes. Transfusion Medicine 1997; 7 (Suppl. 1): 11