User:Penny2299/sandbox

Robert Russell Race
Robert Russell Race
Born	1907; Hull, England, UK
Died	1984
Occupation	Scientist
Spouse	Ruth Sanger

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Career[edit]

After training at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, Race worked as a serologist at the Galton Laboratory at University College London. At the time, one of the founding fathers of British genetics, R. A. Fisher, was establishing a small blood-typing department there. Race and Arthur Mourant began investigating the family of Rh antigens here, after Karl Landsteiner and Alexander S. Wiener published their discovery of Rhesus blood groups in the USA in 1941.

In 1946 Race was appointed head of the new Medical Research Council Blood Group Research Unit. During the same year, Ruth Sanger moved to London as assistant to Race and to work on her PhD. The two would go on to marry in 1956 after the death of Race’s first wife.

Together Race and Sanger published 'Blood Groups in Man', the definitive textbook on human blood groups, in 1950. In the early 1960s they discovered the first X-linked blood group antigen, Xg. They then worked together on the mapping of the X chromosome, a project that was a pathfinder for the Human Genome Project. They received many honors and awards in their joint names, including the Karl Landsteiner Memorial Award and the Gairdner Award.

Sanger succeeded Race as director of the Medical Research Council Blood Group Research Unit in 1973 on his retirement, and they continued to work together until his death.