Karl Landsteiner

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Lore & Background

Karl Landsteiner was born into a Jewish family on 14 June 1868. His father Leopold, a renowned Viennese journalist and editor-in-chief of Die Presse, died when Karl was six. He became very close to his mother Fanny. After graduating with the Matura exam from a Vienna secondary school, he studied medicine at the University of Vienna, writing his doctoral thesis in 1891. From 1891 to 1893, he studied chemistry in Würzburg under Hermann Emil Fischer, in München under Eugen Bamberger, and in Zürich under Arthur Rudolf Hantzsch. Returning to Vienna, he became an assistant to Max von Gruber at the Hygienic Institute. From November 1897 to 1908 he was an assistant at the pathological-anatomical institute under Anton Weichselbaum, publishing 75 papers and performing some 3,600 autopsies. In 1909, with Constantin Levaditi and Erwin Popper, he discovered the polio virus. From 1908 to 1920 he was prosector at the Wilhelminenspital in Vienna, and in 1911 he was sworn in as an associate professor of pathological anatomy. After World War I, he moved to the Netherlands, working as a prosector at St. Joannes de Deo hospital in The Hague. In 1923 he emigrated with his family to New York to work for the Rockefeller Institute. He converted from Judaism to Christianity in 1890 and was baptised into the Catholic Church. In 1916, he married Leopoldine Helene Wlasto, a Greek Orthodox woman who converted to his Catholic faith.

Reader's Guide

Landsteiner's significance lies in his foundational contributions to transfusion medicine. In 1900 he found that blood of two people under contact agglutinates, and in 1901 he identified the three blood groups A, B and O (which he labelled C). He also found 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. Based on his findings, the first successful blood transfusion was performed by Reuben Ottenberg at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York in 1907. In 1937, with Alexander S. Wiener, he identified the Rhesus factor, enabling physicians to transfuse blood without endangering the patient's life. In 1909, with Constantin Levaditi and Erwin Popper, he discovered the polio virus, which proved to be the basis for the fight against polio. For his work on blood groups, he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1930. He was posthumously awarded the Lasker Award in 1946, and has been described as the father of transfusion medicine. Since 2005, World Blood Donor Day is celebrated on Landsteiner's birthday anniversary.

Did You Know?

• Landsteiner performed some 3,600 autopsies in ten years while at the pathological-anatomical institute of the University of Vienna.
• He discovered the polio virus in 1909 with Constantin Levaditi and Erwin Popper.
• He was posthumously inducted into the Polio Hall of Fame at Warm Springs, Georgia, in January 1958.
• Landsteiner converted from Judaism to Christianity in 1890 and was baptised into the Catholic Church.
• World Blood Donor Day is celebrated on Landsteiner's birthday anniversary since 2005.