1930 Nobel Prizes
Physics:
Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman
"for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the
effect named after him"
Literature:
Sinclair Lewis
"for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to
create, with wit and humor, new types of characters“
Peace:
Lars Olof Jonathan (Nathan) Söderblom
Chemistry:
Hans Fischer
"for his researches into the constitution of haemin and chlorophyll and
especially for his synthesis of haemin“
Physiology or Medicine:
Karl Landsteiner
“For his discovery of human blood groups”
Karl Landsteiner




1868 born June 14 in Vienna. 1842 died June 26 in U.S.
1900 proposed that the cause of shock, jaundice, and haemoglobinuria
that had followed some earlier attempts at blood transfusions was not
the result of disease but the inherent differences between characteristics
of an individuals blood
1901 experimented with blood cells seperated from their serum (blood
plasma with clotting factors removed) and observed that a reaction that
resulted in clotting occurred in some cases and not others.
classified blood into the groups A, B, and O based on their reactions
with each other for which he was awarded the nobel prize in 1930


Subsequently Dr. Lansteiner’s colleagues Alfred von Decastello and
Adrano Sturli identified the group AB
Lansteiner concluded the reactions were due to a specific antigen
(substance that stimulates a immune response) present in each
individual blood group that can cause antibodies against another
blood type resulting in its destruction
Implications of discovery

Anthropology
Concluded, after extensive research had been conducted that the
frequency of different blood groups in varying regions around the
world could be used to draw conclusions about the correlation
between races and the origin of the human race


L. and H. Hirschfeld “group A is more frequent than B in
northern Europeans, whereas the position is reversed in several
Asiatic races.
Coca and Snyder “the American Indians who, when racially
pure, belong almost exclusively to group O”
Implications of discovery

Forensics

Crimes
Could be used to determine the difference between animal
and human blood stains for forensic purposes and in some
cases could be used to distinguish between the victim and
accused if they belong to different blood groups

Paternity
Could be used to exclude or include the possibility of a person
as a parent in paternity cases
Group
Group
Group
Group
A phenotype = A/A or A/O genotype
B phenotype = B/B or B/O genotype
O phenotype = O/O genotype
AB phenotype = A/B genotype
Blood group inheritance
Mother/Fat
her
O
A
B
AB
O
O
O, A
O, B
A, B
A
O, A
O, A
O, A,B,AB
A, B, AB
B
O, B
O,A,B,AB
O, B
A, B, AB
AB
A, B
A, B, AB
A, B, AB
A, B, AB
Implications of discover

Transfusions
Brief history before Lansteiner’s identification of groups




1665- Richard Lower performs the first animal blood transfusion
recorded using dogs
1667- French physician Jean-Baptiste Denis transfuses lamb’s
blood into several patients without negative consequences until
one dies
1818- James Blundell performs the first successful transfusion of
human to human blood
1825-1830-James Blundell performs 10 more transfusions 5 of
which are beneficial



Dr. Ludvig Hektoen of Chicago recommends checking blood type of
recipient with donor before transfusion
Dr. Reuben Ottenberg in New York performs the first transfusion
using cross matching with 128 successful cases, with almost no
adverse transfusion reaction
After the invention of sodium citrate to prevent clotting and citrateglucose solution for longer storage, transfusions have become
common place, and are used in a variety of treatments
examples: severe blood loss in trauma, surgery, and the
treatment of blood diseases
Other Contributions

Helped determine the cause of polio, his research contributed to the
eventual development of a vaccine

discovered new facts about the immunology of syphilis

Discovered and named haptens-molecules that cause an immune
response when added to a carrier molecule

1940 with Alexander Wiener discovered another blood type Rh
factor- antigen that is either present or absent indicated with a (+
or -). Important in pregnancy because if a mother is Rh (-) and
her baby is (+), the transfer of blood between them or if the mother
has been previously exposed will cause the mother to develop
antibody’s againt the babies blood.
Additional Facts


According to the National Blood Data resource Center in the year
2000 out of the 1,900 hospitals and 143 blood collection centers
participating, 13.9 million units of whole blood were collected for
use in transfusions
Currently The International Society for Blood transfusion (ISBT)
recognizes 29 important blood groups
Resources




From Noble Lecture
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1930/landstei
ner-lecture.html
Statistics
http://www.aabb.org/Documents/Programs_and_Services/NBDRC/re
search.htm
http://iccbba.org/
Bibliography and Other Information
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1930/landstei
ner-bio.html
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/redgold/innovators/bio_landsteiner.html
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/redgold/history/index.html
Tables
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_types