Invited Faculty - Luc Noël

Luc Noël was born in Nancy, France and received his medical degree from the University of Grenoble and specialised in Clinical Biology, Haematology and Blood Transfusion in Lyon and Paris.  He was a French Public Hospital Practitioner who was in charge of the Haematology and Transfusion Centre of Versailles Hospital when he was recruited in 1992 to contribute to the establishment of the French Blood Agency, followed by the tainted blood affair.

As a consultant, he contributed to the re-organisation of the French Transfusion Service.  He contributed to setting up the system of vigilance and surveillance of adverse reactions known as haemovigilance and to optimising the clinical use of blood components. 

In 1999, Dr Noël was appointed by WHO as Co-ordinator Blood Transfusion Safety.  In 2004 he was charged with a new unit, the Clinical Procedures (CPR) unit now in the Department of Health System Governance and Service Delivery in the cluster of Health Systems and Services, this unit is inter alia in charge of promoting the appropriate effective and safe use of cell, tissue and organ transplantation, including surveillance of risks, in particular in xenotransplantation trials, following World Health Assembly Resolution WHA57-19.

In 2010, after a global consultation process, the Assembly adopted Resolution WHA63.22 and  endorsed updated WHO Guiding Principles for Human Cell Tissue and Organ Transplantation.