Dr Ruth Pettengell

Main interest

Dr Pettengell is a specialist in cellular and molecular medicine, with particular interest in lymphoma and haematological toxicities.

Her current research activities include:

• Improving haemopoietic stem cell quality, population size and mobilisation from bone marrow to blood
• Investigating the potential of mesenchymal stem cells to improve haemopoietic engraftment
• Developing cell-tracking technology to characterise tissue-specific cell homing
• Defining the role of Hox genes in early haemopoiesis
• Evaluating the intercellular biochemistry and treatment of CLL/SLL lymphoma
• Developing new methods for estimating the prognosis of NHL
• Evaluating the potential role of exercise in improving the QoL of lymphoma patients in remission

Current position

She is senior lecturer in Haematology and honorary consultant in Oncology at St George’s Hospital Medical School, University of London.

Education

Dr Pettengell’s medical career started in New Zealand, where she gained experience in general medicine, nuclear medicine and endocrinology in Wellington and Auckland, before specializing in Clinical Oncology at the University Hospitals of Auckland. Dr Pettengell obtained her PhD on the ‘Characterization and Clinical Uses of Blood Progenitor Cells’ from the University of Manchester, UK, where she developed protocols for high dose therapy and stem cell transplantation. Following this, Dr Pettengell took a Senior Clinical Research position at the Department of Developmental Hematopoiesis, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA, where she was involved in a variety of projects concerning the interactions between haemopoietic progenitor cells and bone marrow stroma.

Other activities

She is a member of the EORTC working party who formulated European guidelines for the use of G-CSF to reduce the incidence of chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia in adult oncology patients.
Dr Pettengell is the Principal Investigator of INC-EU and the author of numerous publications in the field of haematology and oncology.
She is a member of several professional associations and clinical research collaborative groups including the EBMT Lymphoma Group as well as a member of numerous advisory groups including the Lymphoma Association Medical Advisory Panel.
Dr Ruth Pettengell has published 108 publications, review articles and book chapters and editorials.