A UCL academic and the patient who took part in his groundbreaking trial have been jointly named among the top 100 people in health globally by a prestigious US magazine.
Professor Waseem Qasim and 17-year-old Alyssa Tapley, appear together on TIME magazine’s TIME100 Health list, which recognises pioneering individuals transforming the future of medicine and care.
Their inclusion follows the success of a world-first clinical trial led by Professor Qasim (UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health) and colleagues at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH). The trial used an innovative gene-editing technique known as base-editing to engineer immune cells capable of treating a previously untreatable form of blood cancer: T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T’ALL).
Base-editing is a new technique where scientists change single letters of DNA code inside living cells and allowed the researchers to treat a previously untreatable type of blood cancer called T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
Alyssa, from Leicestershire, was the first GOSH patient to receive the treatment and has spoken openly about its life-changing impact.
"I’ve now been able to do some of the things I thought earlier in my life it would be impossible for me to do. I really did think I was going to die," she said.
Professor Qasim said: "I feel incredibly privileged to be included in TIME’s health list this year, but this is really down to the work of the amazingly dedicated teams that pull together to find new ways to help patients.
"It’s great news, but our thoughts are also with all’our families and we know there’s more work to be done."
Professor Qasim is the latest UCL academic to make the TIME100 Health list.
In 2024, Professors Paolo De Coppi and Bobby Gaspar (both UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health) were named in the magazine’s inaugural list for projects including their work on stem cells taken from amniotic fluid and in developing new gene therapy treatments for complex diseases of the immune system respectively.
And last year Dr Mary McCormack (UCL Cancer Institute) made the 2025 list in recognition of her work to improve outcomes for cervical cancer patients.
- Professor Waseem Qasim being interviewed by BBC News’s medical editor Fergus Walsh in December 2025.
Nick Hodgson
E: nick.hodgson [at] ucl.ac.uk
- University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT (0) 20 7679 2000
