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Wired: Scientists Crack a 50-Year Mystery to Discover a New Set of Blood Groups
We now know why some blood is missing a key antigen—leading to the creation of a new blood-grouping system. Experts believe even more discoveries are on the way.
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In the end, it took her and her colleagues 19 more years to discover the genetic basis that causes someone to have blood like this. The results of their work have finally been published in the journal Blood–more than half a century since that first perplexing blood sample was taken. The findings mark the discovery of the 47th blood group system. Each such system refers to whether a person has particular antigens on their red blood cells. You’ll likely have heard of the best known systems, ABO and Rh. But there are now known to be 46 others, though most of them affect a very small number of people. Your blood will have a classification in each of these 47 systems. It’s possible to have type A blood that is also Rh positive, for instance, and so on.
Last Updated: 16.Sep.2024 10:58 EDT
