AM25-MN-17-L - Uncovering New Blood Groups: Impacts in Transfusion and Beyond (Sally Frank Award and Lectureship)

Monday, October 27, 2025

2:30 PM - 3:30 PM PT

Room: SDCC 33

Award Presenter(s)

Thierry Peyrard, PharmD, PhD, EurSpLM

Responsible Person of the French Blood Establishment (EFS)/Director of the Medical Affairs and Research Department
Etablissement Français du Sang, La Plaine Saint-Denis, France
La Plaine Saint-Denis, Ile-de-France

Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose

Program Chair(s)

Sandra J. Nance, MS, MASCP, MLS(ASCP), SBB (she/her/hers)

-Adjunct Assistant Professor
University of Pennsylvania, Division of Transfusion Medicine and Therapeutic Pathology
LANSDALE, Pennsylvania

Disclosure information not submitted.

This session will provide a look at the process of characterization of antibodies to an antigen of undetermined specificity, while highlighting the role and crucial expertise of all stakeholders at the reference laboratory (medical technologists, supervisors, laboratory directors, researchers) in resolving these complex cases. This session will also aim to illustrate how this type of discovery can have major implications not only in the field of transfusion medicine but also in many other medical disciplines, such as oncology, toxicology, neurology, and hematology.

Learning Objectives:

Describe how to investigate antibodies to a high-prevalence antigen of undetermined specificity and stress the importance to pursue laboratory investigations to their conclusion, for both clinical and scientific purposes
Discuss the essential value of omics tools (proteomics, genomics) and cellular expression models in the full characterization of new blood group systems
Outline how null phenotypes potentially associated with new blood group systems represent a unique resource for a better understanding of human physiology and pathophysiology