History of HLA Nomenclature: The 1980s
The 1980s: Class II and Molecular Nomenclature Up until this point, most analysis was performed by serology testing (leukoagglutination, cytotoxicity, and complement fixation) which yielded the identities of Class I specificities. HLA Class I specificities are found on almost all cells in the body. HLA Class II is a different matter. HLA Class II specificities […]
History of HLA Nomenclature: The 1970s
The 1970s: Class I, Splits, and Loci Differentiation The 1970’s was all about class I, splits, and loci differentiation. Now that researchers had an idea of what they were working with, they were really getting into the swing of things. The Nomenclature Report in 1970 was all about new specificities. Several new antigen specificities were […]
History of HLA Nomenclature: The 1960s
HLA in the 1960s: Just Getting Started In the 1960’s, researchers started really working to evaluate the antigens on white blood cells. The first International Workshop on Histocompatibility (IWH) was held in 1964 at Duke University but no clear result patterns were observed, though assay techniques were shared.1 The sharing of assay techniques was extremely […]
What is HLA’s role in the body? Overview
A Quick Note I’d like to note that this is an oversimplified explanation of HLA, which means there are a lot of generalizations here. Exceptions exist to these concepts. However, if you are new to HLA this will hopefully be an easy (but somewhat comprehensive) introduction. Jump to the Key Takeaways at the bottom of […]
History of HLA Nomenclature: The 1950’s
HLA in the 1950’s: Asking Why It’s important to recognize that, while this post is not going into the details here, there is a ton of science that built the groundwork for HLA discovery. Science is always building on science. As it is in science, the story of HLA is all about confusion and curiosity, […]
History of HLA Nomenclature: Overview
Why is the HLA nomenclature system so confusing? Researchers investigating histocompatibility had no idea what they were walking into, or how expansive their research would become. The researchers began as separate entities in their own laboratories. Jean Dausset was checking out a glass slide with white cell agglutination in the 50’s at the same time […]
Welcome to HLA Help!
Welcome to HLA Help! I’ll be adding knowledge gradually on a blogging schedule. That is also how I’ll be building in details on this site. I hope you find something of use here. If you are looking for anything specific, feel free to message me and I’ll add it to my priority list!
