Red Cell Immunogenetics and Blood Group Terminology

The ISBT Working Party (WP) Red Cell Immunogenetics and Blood Group Terminology maintains the official registry for all recognized blood group systems, and establishes standardized naming conventions for blood group systems, antigens and alleles used in transfusion medicine and related fields.

Since November 2025, all blood group allele data has been migrated to our new database system!

Our registry currently includes:

48 systems 

56 Genes

 

398 Antigens

2,001 Alleles

 

Visit the database at the link above to find comprehensive details about each classification system.

Current Leadership 

Margaret A. Keller

RCIBGT Working Party Chair, Executive of National Laboratories, American Red Cross, Philadelphia, PA, USA

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Margaret A. Keller

RCIBGT Working Party Chair, Executive of National Laboratories, American Red Cross, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Dr. Keller is the Executive of National Laboratories at the American Red Cross, overseeing the National Molecular Laboratory, National Reference Laboratory for Specialized Testing, and the National Neutrophil. She is senior director of the American Rare Donor Program (ARDP). Margaret received her PhD in molecular genetics from the University of Pennsylvania. She is ARDP liaison to the Molecular Testing Standards Unit of the AABB and the secretary of the ISBT Working Party on Red Cell Immunogenetics and Blood Group Terminology and a member of the ISBT Working Party on Rare Donors. She is adjunct Associate Professor at Thomas Jefferson University, is editor-in-chief of the journal Immunohematology and is on the board of South Central Association of Blood Banks.

Nicole Thornton

Immunohaematology WP Chair, RCIBGT WP Vice chair, Head of Red Cell Reference, IBGRL, NHS Blood and Transplant, Bristol, UK

Vanja Karamatic Crew

Secretary of the RCIBGT WP, Senior Research Scientist, Bristol Institute for Transfusion Sciences, Bristol, USA

Peter Ligthart

Immunohaematology and RCIBGT WP Treasurer, Senior Technician, Sanquin Blood Supply, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Christine Henny

Chair of the cfDNA subgroup of the RCIBGT WP, Head, Molecular Diagnostics Immunohematology Laboratory, Interregional Blood Transfusion SRC Ltd, Bern, Switzerland

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Christine Henny

Chair of the cfDNA subgroup of the RCIBGT WP, Head, Molecular Diagnostics Immunohematology Laboratory, Interregional Blood Transfusion SRC Ltd, Bern, Switzerland

Christine Henny’s professional journey in molecular blood group determination spans more than 14 years at Interregional Blood Transfusion SRC, one of Switzerland's national reference laboratories for immunohematology. She initially worked in research and development in the field of molecular blood group diagnostics. Since 2023, Dr. Henny is the Head of the Molecular Diagnostics Immunohematology Laboratory, responsible for both routine immunohematological molecular diagnostics and R&D.