Karl Landsteiner

Facts

Karl Landsteiner

Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.

Karl Landsteiner

Born: 14 June 1868, Vienna, Austrian Empire (now Austria)

Died: 26 June 1943, New York, NY, USA

Affiliation at the time of the award: Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, New York, NY, USA

Prize motivation: "for his discovery of human blood groups."

Prize share: 1/1

Work

When a person loses lots of blood through accident or illness, it must be replaced. When transfusions from one person to another were tried, however, the result was very often disastrous. Karl Landsteiner discovered why: when different people's blood was mixed, the blood cells sometimes clotted. He explained in 1901 that people have different types of blood cells, that is, there are different blood groups. The discovery led to blood transfusions between people with compatible blood groups.

To cite this section
MLA style: Karl Landsteiner – Facts. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2018. Thu. 18 Oct 2018. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1930/landsteiner/facts/>

Back to top Back To Top Takes users back to the top of the page

Learn more

Nobel Prizes 2018

This year 12 new laureates have been awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. Their work and discoveries range from cancer therapy and laser physics to developing proteins that can solve humankind’s chemical problems. The work of the 2018 Nobel Laureates also included combating war crimes, as well as integrating innovation and climate with economic growth. Find out more.
Nobel prizes burgundy 2018

Explore prizes and laureates

Look for popular awards and laureates in different fields, and discover the history of the Nobel Prize.