Landsteiner, << LAND `sty` nuhr or LAHNT `shty` nuhr, >> Karl (1868-1943), won the 1930 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his discovery of the main types of human blood—A, B, AB, and O. This discovery made safe blood transfusions possible for the first time. In 1940, Landsteiner and his co-workers, Philip Levine and Alexander Wiener, discovered the Rh blood factor, an important cause of stillbirths. Landsteiner also contributed information on how the body becomes immune to certain disease bacteria. In addition, his research helped lead to the discovery that a virus causes polio.
Landsteiner was born on June 14, 1868, in Vienna, Austria. He moved to the United States in 1922 and was a member of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now Rockefeller University) from 1922 to 1939. Landsteiner died on June 26, 1943.
