Member ISBT Working Party Immunogenetics & Terminology
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RHDDWI KEL02N.12 RHDweak D type 31 FY02M.01 KEL02N.12 RHCECE-D(5)-CE KEL02N.15 RHD07.01 RHD01W.32 XKN.20 FY02N.01 RHD01W.26 KEL02.17 RHDDVI.1 RHDweak partial 15 XK01 RHDDIIIa-CE(3-7)-D RHD01W.45 JKA
You wont believe it, but it’s true. Above codes correspond to blood groups! Well, at least to their genetic blueprints, called alleles. Alleles are variants of genes everybody has. Alleles above are examples (results) of my work, or are accompanying me during my working day. As you may imagine, blood group specialists and researchers need to find a way of communicating among each other and therefore, need to name blood groups. Otherwise we can’t share our findings, and end up building another Tower of Babel. To make matters even more complex, computers also need to understand the names, so who will be left behind, that’s the question!
In any case, I am happy, and I feel highly honored to be part of the illustrious party mentioned above. The original email text from Jill Storry on Sept. 11th 2012 read: “Welcome to our new members: Greg Denomme, Christoph Gassner, Thierry Peyrard and Franz Wagner.”*