Alexander Wiener was a physician who, along with fellow scientist Karl Landsteiner, discovered the Rh factor in blood. He also discovered a number of other antigens (substances in the blood that cause the development of antibodies). The Rh factor is an...

Blood has two main components: serum and cells. In 1900 Karl Landsteiner, a physician at the University of Vienna, Austria, noted that the sera of some individuals caused the red cells of others to agglutinate. This observation led to the discovery of...

The development of blood transfusion, a potentially life-saving technique, was hampered by a serious problem: many times the patient would suffer an often fatal "transfusion reaction," apparently to the donated blood itself. The cause of such reactions...

Rh factor describes blood type compatibility issues involving Rh blood groups. These play a critical role in transfusions and in obstetrics. Rh blood groups were first discovered in 1940 by Karl Landsteiner and Alexander Wiener in their experiments...

Human red blood cells contain protein molecules (antigens) in their cell membranes that determine the blood type of an individual. There are several kinds of antigens present on human red blood cells, as well as the Rh antigen. People with the Rh...

A blood type (also called a blood group) is a classification of blood based on the presence or absence of inherited antigenic substances on the surface of red blood cells (RBCs). These antigens may be proteins, carbohydrates, glycoproteins or...

Connor Geddes was 13 days old when surgeons gave him a new heart that did not match his blood type _ deliberately.Connor, now 11 months old and thriving, is one of several dozen babies around the world to have received mismatched hearts, part of a...

Connor Geddes was 13 days old when surgeons gave him a new heart that didn't match his blood type _ deliberately.Connor, now 11 months old and thriving, is one of several dozen babies around the world to have received mismatched hearts, part of a slowly...

Blood banks look at the United States' Hispanic population boom and see an unexpected potential to save thousands of lives: The possibility of more so-called universal blood donors.It turns out that Latinos are more likely than the average American to have Type O blood, the...

Sometimes staying focused on a small niche can generate big gains.Just ask Gioacchino De Chirico, chief executive of Immucor BLUD.The company makes and sells automated systems that perform blood typing and blood compatibility tests of donors and recipients prior to transfusions.It also makes "reagents," which...

Provides the details of a lab experiment detailing how blood is classified, or typed, according to the presence or absence of certain markers (called antigens) on the surface of red blood cells.