Professor Kim Hyong-bum’s Research Team Develops RhD Blood Conversion Method

—Results Published in Nature Communications

A research team led by Yonsei Pharmacology Professor Kim Hyong-bum has successfully developed a method for converting RhD positive blood cells into RhD negative cells. The results were published June 16 in the prestigious journal Nature Communications under the title “RhD blood group conversion using transcription activator-like effector nucleases.”

Yonsei Professor Kim Hyun-ok from the Department of Laboratory Medicine, who was also part of the team, explained that individuals with RhD positive blood can receive transfusions from both RhD positive and negative donors. However, those who are RhD negative can only receive transfusions of RhD negative blood. The success of the team’s research thus means that in the future, RhD negative blood groups will be able to receive transfusions from both positive and negative blood types. While the RhD negative blood type is very rare in Asia—only 0.15% of Koreans are RhD negative—it is more common in the West, and the complications of a negative blood type receiving a transfusion from a positive one can be severe.

Professor Kim Hyong-bum and his team are in the process of registering a patent for their blood conversion method; with this technology, hospitals will be able to manufacture sufficient amounts of RhD negative blood for transfusions. The research was sponsored and funded by the Ministry of Public Health and Welfare’s Medical Technology Research and Development Project, the Medistar Project, and the Korea Research Foundation.