MRC Blood Group Unit

The MRC Blood Group Unit, originally the Blood Group Research Unit, was a research unit of the British Medical Research Council from 1946 to 1995. Initially established in the Lister Institute, it transferred to the Galton Laboratory (the Genetics department) of University College, London in 1975, the original home of its predecessor.
The unit mainly used serological techniques to discover blood group antigens. Only in the last 15 years of its existence were monoclonal antibodies and molecular approaches adopted. Blood groups were used to study many aspects of human genetics: including those related to blood transfusion, linkage analysis, mosaicism and chimaerism.
Scientific achievements.
These are listed roughly in chronological order of the start of the research. Research on most topics was on-going with significant publications spanning several decades: for instance Xg was discovered in the early 1960s, but the unit contributed to the identification of the underlying gene, PBDX, in 1994.