News Releases & Research Results International approval of a novel blood type “KANNO”: Achievement of the National Center for Global Health and Medicine as the first Japanese institution to be recognized

This research project was a collaborative effort among Project Leader Katsushi Tokunaga and Research Fellow Yosuke Omae of Genome Medical Science, Research Institute, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, the Japanese Red Cross Society, and Fukushima Medical University.

• Using advanced genomic techniques, the research group identified a novel blood type called “KANNO”, which is the 37th blood type to be approved by the International Society of Blood Transfusion.
• This was the first finding from any Japanese groups that led to an approval by the International Society of Blood Transfusion Committee on Terminology.
• The research group also identified the “KANNO” blood type antigen as prion protein, which causes prion diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. There may be an association between the “KANNO” blood type and prion diseases.

This research project was supported by Platform Program for Promotion of Genome Medicine (R&D for Advanced Genome Research) of AMED.

The results of research were published in Transfusion on July 4.

Omae Y., et al. Integrative genome analysis identified the KANNO blood group antigen as prion protein Transfusion
DOI: 10.1111/trf.15319