Landsteiner, Karl (1868–1943)

Austrian-born US immunologist who was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1930 for his discovery of the ABO blood group system in the period 1900–02. He also aided in the discovery of the Rhesus blood factors in 1940, and discovered the polio virus.

In 1927 Landsteiner found that, in addition to antigens A and B, human blood cells contain one or other or both of two heritable antigens, M and N. These are of no importance in transfusions, because human serum does not contain the corresponding antibodies, but they are of value in resolving paternity disputes.

Landsteiner was born and educated in Vienna, and also studied at other universities in Europe. He worked at the Vienna Pathology Laboratory 1898–1908, became professor at a Vienna hospital, and left Austria in 1919 for the Netherlands, moving in 1922 to the USA and the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, New York.

His book The Specificity of Serological Reactions (1936) helped establish the science of immunology. He also developed a test for syphilis.