Cardiovascular System


Who discovered the ABO system of typing blood?

The Austrian physician Karl Landsteiner (1868-1943) discovered the ABO system of blood types in 1909. Landsteiner had investigated why blood transfused from one individual was sometimes successful and other times resulted in the death of the patient. He theorized that there must be several different blood types. If a transfusion occurs between two individuals with different blood types, the red blood cells will clump together, blocking the blood vessels. Landsteiner received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1930 for his discovery of human blood groups.

