Article: Refining BloodTypes

Refining BloodTypes

Current tests define blood type as A/B/O and Rh positive or negative, but some racial groups share a variety of more obscure variants, explains Antonio Martinez, CEO of Bilbao-based Progenika. African and Asians, for instance, might be negative for more rare antigens. These do not cause a problem when someone needs a single blood transfusion and receives antigen-mismatched blood; chronic patients, however, will eventually develop antibodies and suffer allergic reactions if the blood donor is not an exact match. Most blood banks currently accept the fact that some patients will live with these antigen-incduced complications. Says Msrtinez, "We want to avoid this problem by supplying patients with the perfectly matched bood from  the very beginning."

          So Progenika developed a DNA chip to identify whether a patient or blood donor is positive or negative for these blood types (their names include RHCE,Kell,Kidd, and dffy). The test identifies 23 single-nucleotidepolymorphisms, or SNPs, and labels them with fluorescent molecules. The DNA blood-typing chip, alvailable since 2008,has already been adopted in blood banks across Europe.

         

          For the U,S, market, progenika identified SNPs related to sicklecell anemia. The Company has already begun selling in the U.S., and recently signed an agreement with Novartis to sell Progenika products in the U.S. The company is now utilizing the same technology to identify markers for cancers, beginning with prostate cancer.

Source: MIT: Technology Review, February 2012

Main Idea:

Paragraph 1: Current tests define blood type as A/B/O and Rh positive or negative, but some racial groups share a variety of more obscure variants.

Paragraph 2: Progenika developed a DNA chip to identify whether a patient or blood donor is positive or negative for these blood types

Paragraph 3: The company is now utilizing the Progenika to identify markers for cancers, beginning with prostate cancer.