Karl Landsteiner
Karl Landsteiner | |
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![]() Landsteiner in Stockholm in 1930 | |
Born | Baden bei Wien, Austria-Hungary | 14 June 1868
Died | 26 June 1943 New York City | (aged 75)
Citizenship | Austria, United States (from 1929)[1] |
Alma mater | University of Vienna |
Known for | Research of blood group system, discovery of Rh factor, discovery of poliovirus |
Awards |
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Scientific career | |
Fields | Medicine, virology |
Institutions | University of Vienna Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research |
Karl Landsteiner ForMemRS[2] (German pronunciation: [kaʁl ˈlantˌʃtaɪnɐ]; 14 June 1868 – 26 June 1943[3]) was an Austrian biologist, physician, and immunologist.[4] He distinguished the main blood groups in 1900, having developed the modern system of classification of blood groups from his identification of the presence of agglutinins in the blood, and in 1937 identified, with Alexander S. Wiener, the Rhesus factor, thus enabling physicians to transfuse blood without endangering the patient's life. With Constantin Levaditi and Erwin Popper, he discovered the polio virus in 1909. He received the Aronson Prize in 1926. In 1930, he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He was posthumously awarded the Lasker Award in 1946, and has been described as the father of transfusion medicine.[5]
Early life and education[]
Born into a Jewish family, Landsteiner's father, Leopold (1818–1875), a renowned Viennese journalist who was editor-in-chief of Die Presse, died at age 56, when Karl was only 6. This led to a close relationship between him and his mother Fanny (née Hess; 1837–1908). After graduating with the Matura exam from a Vienna secondary school, he took up the study of medicine at the University of Vienna and wrote his doctoral thesis in 1891. While still a student he published an essay on the influence of diets on the composition of blood.[3]
From 1891 to 1893, Landsteiner studied chemistry in Würzburg under Hermann Emil Fischer, in München, Eugen Bamberger and in Zürich under Arthur Rudolf Hantzsch. He had a number of publications from that period, some of them in co-operation with his professors.[6]
Research work in Vienna; discovery of the polio virus[]
After returning to Vienna he became an assistant to Max von Gruber at the Hygienic Institute. In his studies he concentrated on the mechanism of immunity and the nature of antibodies. From November 1897 to 1908 Landsteiner was an assistant at the pathological-anatomical institute of the University of Vienna under Anton Weichselbaum, where he published 75 papers, dealing with issues in serology, bacteriology, virology and pathological anatomy. In addition he did some 3,600 autopsies in those ten years. Weichselbaum was Landsteiner's tutor for his postdoctoral lecture qualification in 1903.[7] From 1908 to 1920 Landsteiner was prosector at the Wilhelminenspital in Vienna and in 1911 he was sworn in as an associate professor of pathological anatomy. During that time he discovered – in co-operation with Erwin Popper – the infectious character of poliomyelitis and isolated the polio virus.[8] In recognition of this groundbreaking discovery, which proved to be the basis for the fight against polio, he was posthumously inducted into the Polio Hall of Fame at Warm Springs, Georgia, which was dedicated in January 1958.
Research of the blood groups[]
In 1900 Karl Landsteiner found out that the blood of two people under contact agglutinates, and in 1901 he found that this effect was due to contact of blood with blood serum. As a result, he succeeded in identifying the three blood groups A, B and O, which he labelled C, of human blood. Landsteiner also found out that blood transfusion between persons with the same blood group did not lead to the destruction of blood cells, whereas this occurred between persons of different blood groups.[9] Based on his findings, the first successful blood transfusion was performed by Reuben Ottenberg at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York in 1907.
Today it is well known that persons with blood group AB can accept donations of the other blood groups, and that persons with blood group O-negative can donate to all other groups. Individuals with blood group AB are referred to as universal recipients and those with blood group O-negative are known as universal donors. These donor-recipient relationships arise due to the fact that type O-negative blood possesses neither antigens of blood group A nor of blood group B. Therefore, the immune systems of persons with blood group A, B or AB do not refuse the donation. Further, because persons with blood group AB do not form antibodies against either the antigens of blood group A or B, they can accept blood from persons with these blood groups, as well as from persons with blood group O-negative.
In today's blood transfusions only concentrates of red blood cells without serum are transmitted, which is of great importance in surgical practice. In 1930 Landsteiner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in recognition of these achievements. For his pioneering work, he is recognized as the father of transfusion medicine.[10]
Research work in the Netherlands and the United States[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5b/LandsteinerWS.jpg/150px-LandsteinerWS.jpg)
After World War I, Vienna and the new republic of Austria as a whole was in a desolate economic state, a situation in which Landsteiner did not see any possibilities to carry on with his research work. He decided to move to the Netherlands and accepted a post as prosector in the small Catholic St. Joannes de Deo hospital (now MCH Westeinde) in The Hague[11] and, in order to improve his financial situation also took a job in a small factory, producing old tuberculin (tuberculinum prestinum).[12] He also published a number of papers, five of them being published in Dutch by the Royal Academy of Sciences. Yet working conditions proved to be not much better than in post-war Vienna. So Landsteiner accepted the invitation that reached him from New York, initiated by Simon Flexner, who was familiar with Landsteiner's work, to work for the Rockefeller Institute. He arrived there with his family in the spring of 1923.[3] Throughout the 1920s Landsteiner worked on the problems of immunity and allergy. In 1927 he discovered new blood groups: M, N and P, refining the work he had begun 20 years before. Shortly thereafter, Landsteiner and his collaborator, Philip Levine, published the work and, later that same year, the types began to be used in paternity suits.
Awards and honours[]
Landsteiner was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1932 and awarded the Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh in 1937. He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1941.[2] In 1946, he was posthumously awarded the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award.
Personal life[]
Landsteiner converted from Judaism to Christianity in 1890, as he baptised into the Catholic Church.[13] In 1916, he married Leopoldine Helene Wlasto, a Greek Orthodox woman who converted to her husband's Catholic faith. In 1937, Landsteiner unsuccessfully[14]t legal action against an American publisher who had included him in the book Who's Who in American Jewry, stating that "it will be detrimental to me to emphasize publicly the religion of my ancestors."[15]
References[]
- ^ Dorner, Friedrich; Schwarz, Hans Peter (2003). "Karl Landsteiner and his major contributions to haematology". British Journal of Haematology. 121: 556–565.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Rous, P. (1947). "Karl Landsteiner. 1868–1943". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society. 5 (15): 294–324. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1947.0002. JSTOR 769085. S2CID 161789667.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c "Karl Landsteiner". Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1922–1941. Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing Company. 1965. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
- ^ "Karl Landsteiner", Jewish Virtual Library
- ^ Speiser, Paul; Smekal, Ferdinand G. (1990). Karl Landsteiner: Entdecker der Blutgruppen und Pionier der Immunologie (3rd ed.). Berlin. ISBN 9783894120849.[page needed]
- ^ Speiser & Smekal 1990, p. 24.
- ^ Speiser & Smekal 1990, p. 33.
- ^ Landsteiner, K.; Popper, E. (1909). "Übertragung der Poliomyelitis acuta auf Affen". Zeitschrift für Immunitätsforschung und experimentelle Therapie (in German). 2: 377–390.
- ^ Landsteiner, Karl (1900). "Zur Kenntnis der antifermentativen, lytischen und agglutinierenden Wirkungen des Blutserums und der Lymphe". Centralblatt F. Bakteriologie, Parasitenkunde U. Infektionskrankheiten. 27: 357–362.
- ^ "Homage to scientist on Blood Donor's Day". The Tribune. 15 June 2006. Retrieved 14 January 2012.
- ^ "Wie was Karl Landsteiner?" [Who was Karl Landsteiner?]. Landsteiner Instituut (in Dutch). Retrieved 13 December 2018.
- ^ Speiser & Smekal 1990, p. 63.
- ^ Staudacher, Anna L. (2009) "... meldet den Austritt aus dem mosaischen Glauben". 18000 Austritte aus dem Judentum in Wien, 1868–1914: Namen – Quellen – Daten. Peter Lang, Frankfurt, ISBN 978-3-631-55832-4, p. 349
- ^ "Concise Dictionary of American Jewish Biography". The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives.[page needed]
- ^ "Dr. Landsteiner Sues to Escape Being Labelled Jew". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 6 April 1937.
External links[]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Karl Landsteiner. |
- Karl Landsteiner on Nobelprize.org
including the Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1930 On Individual Differences in Human Blood
- Karl Landsteiner 1868—1943 A Biographical Memoir by Michael Heidelberger
- 1946 Lasker award for clinical medicine
- Key Participants: Karl Landsteiner – It's in the Blood! A Documentary History of Linus Pauling, Hemoglobin, and Sickle Cell Anemia
- National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
- 1868 births
- 1943 deaths
- Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine
- Austrian Nobel laureates
- Jewish Nobel laureates
- Jewish inventors
- Austrian emigrants to the United States
- Austrian Jews
- Austrian pathologists
- Jewish physicians
- Austrian immunologists
- Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism
- Austrian Roman Catholics
- Scientists from Baden bei Wien
- People educated at Gymnasium Wasagasse
- Recipients of the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award
- Members of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
- Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
- Foreign Members of the Royal Society
- Austro-Hungarian expatriates in Germany
- Austrian expatriates in the Netherlands