Eloise Giblett

Eloise Giblett (1921 to 2009) was an American genetic scientist and hematologist whose blood-group research opened the way to safe transfusion and transplantation. Born in Tacoma, Washington, she joined the faculty of the University of Washington School of Medicine in 1955, led immunogenetics at the Puget Sound Blood Center from 1955 to 1979 and served as its executive director from 1980 to 1987, and held a research professorship from 1967 until she retired with emeritus status. Her most cited finding was adenosine deaminase deficiency, the first immunodeficiency disease to be recognized. She also identified and characterized many red blood cell antigens, among them the Elo antigen that carries her name, and applied the study of red cell protein variants to genetic linkage analysis. She was senior author of the paper showing that marrow transplantation from unrelated donors could treat leukemia and was an early supporter of bone marrow donation. Her 1969 textbook Genetic Markers in Human Blood became a standard reference, and she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1980.