BENGALURU: A new blood group, previously unidentified anywhere in the world, has been discovered in a South Indian woman from Kolar district in Karnataka. This remarkable case came to light when a 38-year-old woman was admitted for cardiac surgery at a hospital in Kolar.
Her blood group was O Rh+, the most common blood group; however, none of the available O-positive blood units were compatible with her. The hospital escalated the case to the Advanced Immunohematology Reference Laboratory at the Rotary Bangalore TTK Blood Centre for further investigation.
“Using advanced serological techniques, our team found that her blood was ‘panreactive’, incompatible with all test samples. Recognising this as a possible case of a rare or unknown blood type, the team collected blood samples from 20 of her family members to search for a compatible match, but none of them were a match. The case was managed with utmost care, and with collaborative effort from her physicians and family, her surgery was successfully completed without the need for transfusion,” said Dr Ankit Mathur from the Rotary Bangalore TTK Blood Centre. Meanwhile, her and her family’s blood samples were sent to the International Blood Group Reference Laboratory (IBGRL), Bristol, UK. Dr Mathur said that ten months of extensive research and molecular testing resulted in the discovery of a previously unknown blood group antigen.
Kolar woman is first in world with CRIB antigen
This is part of the Cromer (CR) blood group system and, in recognition of its origin, has been officially named CRIB, with ‘CR’ representing ‘Cromer’ and ‘IB’ standing for ‘India’, ‘Bangalore’. This historic announcement was made at the 35th Regional Congress of the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) held in Milan, Italy, in June 2025, marking the woman as the first person in the world identified with the CRIB antigen, Dr Mathur said.
Rotary Bangalore TTK Blood Centre has initiated a Rare Donor Registry of voluntary blood donors, in partnership with Karnataka State Blood Transfusion and IIH, the Indian Council of Medical Research centre in Mumbai and with technical support from the International Society of Blood Transfusion.
“We have been instrumental in identifying and providing optimal transfusion support to several other rare blood type patients in recent years. These cases have also been published and presented to international forums (eg: D- -, Rh null, In b negative etc),” the doctor said.