Robert Russell Race

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

FRS FRCP

FRCPath The Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath) is a professional membership organisation. Its main function is the overseeing of postgraduate training, and its Fellowship Examination (FRCPath) is recognised as the standard assessment of fitness to pr ...

MRCS (28 November 1907 – 15 April 1984) was a British medical doctor and human geneticist. He was Director of the Medical Research Council Blood Group Unit, of the

Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine The Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, informally known as the Lister Institute, was established as a research institute (the British Institute of Preventive Medicine) in 1891, with bacteriologist Marc Armand Ruffer as its first director, us ...

. His second wife, whom he married in 1956, was

Ruth Sanger Ruth Ann Sanger (6 June 1918 – 4 June 2001) was an Australian immunogeneticist, haematologist and serologist. She was known for her work on human red cell antigens and for the genetic mapping of the human X chromosome. She was Director of ...

, who succeeded him in the post.

Career

In 1937, after training at

St Bartholomew's Hospital St Bartholomew's Hospital, commonly known as Barts, is a teaching hospital located in the City of London. It was founded in 1123 and is currently run by Barts Health NHS Trust. History Early history Barts was founded in 1123 by Rahere (died ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, Race worked as a serologist in the blood-typing department being established by

Ronald Fisher Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher (17 February 1890 – 29 July 1962) was a British polymath who was active as a mathematician, statistician, biologist, geneticist, and academic. For his work in statistics, he has been described as "a genius who a ...

at the

Galton Laboratory The Galton Laboratory was a laboratory for research into eugenics and then into human genetics based at University College London in London, England. It was originally established in 1904, and became part of UCL's biology department in 1996. The a ...

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

. The serum unit moved to Cambridge at the beginning of the Second World War, and in 1941 Race and

Arthur Mourant Arthur Ernest Mourant FRS (11 April 1904 – 29 August 1994) was a British chemist, hematologist and geneticist who pioneered research into biological anthropology and its distribution, genetics, clinical and laboratory medicine, and geology. ...

began investigating the family of Rh antigens. This work followed from developments made by

Karl Landsteiner Karl Landsteiner (; 14 June 1868 – 26 June 1943) was an Austrian-born American biologist, physician, and immunologist. He distinguished the main blood groups in 1900, having developed the modern system of classification of blood groups from ...

and

Alexander S. Wiener Alexander Solomon Wiener (March 16, 1907 – November 6, 1976), was an American biologist and physician, specializing in the fields of forensic medicine, serology, and immunogenetics. His pioneer work led to discovery of the Rh factor in 1937, ...

in the USA. In 1946 Race was appointed head of the Medical Research Council Blood Group Research Unit. During the same year,

moved to

to complete her PhD. She joined Race's group as assistant to Race. Sanger and Race married in 1956 following the death of Race's first wife. Together Race and Sanger published ''Blood Groups in Man'' in 1950, which eventually spanned six editions. Their work continued in the 1960s with the discovery of the

Xg antigen system The XG antigen is a red blood cell surface antigen discovered in 1962. by researchers at the MRC Blood Group Unit.Mann, J. D., Cahan, A., Gelb, A. G., Fisher, N., Hamper, J., Tippett, P., Sanger, R., Race, R. R A sex-linked blood group. Lancet. 1 ...

and mapping the

X chromosome The X chromosome is one of the two sex-determining chromosomes (allosomes) in many organisms, including mammals (the other is the Y chromosome), and is found in both males and females. It is a part of the XY sex-determination system and XO sex-d ...

. Race retired in 1973, and Sanger was named as director of the MRC Blood Group Unit. They received many honors and awards in their joint names, including the

Karl Landsteiner Memorial Award The Karl Landsteiner Memorial Award is a scientific award given by the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) to scientists with "an international reputation in transfusion medicine or cellular therapies" "whose original research resulted in an ...

and the Gairdner Award.

References

External links

The Robert Race and Ruth Sanger papers are kept at the

Wellcome Library The Wellcome Library is founded on the collection formed by Sir Henry Wellcome (1853–1936), whose personal wealth allowed him to create one of the most ambitious collections of the 20th century. Henry Wellcome's interest was the history of med ...

. They have been digitised and ar
available online
1907 births 1984 deaths 20th-century English medical doctors British geneticists Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians Fellows of the Royal College of Pathologists {{UK-med-bio-stub