Karl Landsteiner
| Karl Landsteiner | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
June 14, 1868 Vienna, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | June 26, 1943 (aged 75) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Citizenship | Austria, Netherlands, US |
| Fields | Medicine, virology |
| Institutions |
University of Vienna Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research |
| Alma mater | University of Vienna |
| Known for | Development of blood group system, discovery of Rh factor, discovery of poliovirus |
| Notable awards |
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Karl Landsteiner, ForMemRS (June 14, 1868 – June 26, 1943), was an Austrian biologist and physician. He is noted for having 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 having identified, with Alexander S. Wiener, the Rhesus factor, in 1937, 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 awarded the Lasker Award in 1946 posthumously, and is recognized as the father of transfusion medicine.
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 (born 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.
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.
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