Hallym University Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital

Dr. Kyung-Wha Lee, Professor of the Hallym Institute for Genome Application, Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital, has recently been elected a member of Human Leukocyte Antigen(HLA) Nomenclature Committee of the World Health Organization(WHO).

The naming of new HLA genes, and allele sequences, and their quality control is the responsibility of the WHO Nomenclature Committee for Factors of the HLA System, which first met in 1968. This committee meets regularly to discuss issues of nomenclature, and has published 16 major reports documenting firstly the HLA antigens, and more recently the genes, and alleles.

HLA professionals in academic, and medical circles use the naming of the committee. The committee has 22 HLA experts now on its membership including ten Americans, nine Europeans, one Australian, one Japanese, and one Korean.

By Jonghun Im, Int'l Operations Team, HUMC (imjonghun@hallym.or.kr)