ISBT – THE KEY TO BLOOD TRANSFUSION – AT THE UFL

The International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT), founded in 1935 and based in Amsterdam, is dedicated to the continuous expansion and documentation of knowledge about blood transfusion. More than a dozen working groups of this society deal with various aspects of transfusion safety, such as e.g. detecting viruses, finding donors, framing quality control guidelines etc.

One of these working groups, the ISBT Working Party «Red Cell Immunogenetics and Blood Group Terminology (RCI&BGT)» deals with the documentation of the currently known 47 (!) blood group systems, as well as the formal acknowledgement and systematic classification of newly identified systems and antigens. As such, all relevant globally known information about human blood groups is assembled in a single unique resource, and is available to informed experts free of charge.

At present, the Working Party RCI&BGT consists of 34 internationally renowned blood group experts and is lead jointly by Prof Catherine Hyland from Brisbane/Australia and Prof Christoph Gassner from Triesen/Principality of Liechtenstein. Also in Triesen, at the head office of the UFL, the operative documentation of the human blood group diversity is managed. Ing Harald Obergasser is responsible for this. He is a data expert, coordinates the communication within the Working Party and curates the current and soon-to-be-released online blood group data bank.

Hence, since 2021, the Institute of Translational Medicine at the UFL in Triesen acts as the operative turntable and communicative centre of the ISBT Working Party RCI&BGT and – most importantly – as a worldwide hub for the documentation and systematic listing of all scientifically proven variations of human blood groups.

Learn more: https://www.isbtweb.org/isbt-working-parties/rcibgt.html