Karl Otto Landsteiner (1868-1943). Physician-biochemist-immunologist.

Karl Landsteiner applied the sciences of biochemistry, pathology, microbiology, and immunology in medical research to great success during the first half of the 20th century. Although he is principally known for elucidating the major blood group antigens A and B and their isoantibodies for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Landsteiner made many other important medical discoveries. In that respect, he ascertained that paralytic poliomyelitis was due to a virus, the pancreas was damaged in cystic fibrosis, simple chemicals called haptens were able to combine with antibodies, and the Rh antigen that was later found to be the principal cause of hemolytic anemia of the newborn was found in most humans. Moreover, Landsteiner's book "The Specificity of Serological Reactions" was a precursor to the molecular revolution in immunology that occurred after Second World War. Finally, he was one of the leaders of the American Association of Immunology and of the Journal of Immunology.

Lesser known aspects of Ludwik Fleck's (1896-1961) heroic life during World War II.

Professor Ludwik Fleck was a famous scientist and a prominent philosopher. Although his life and work were studied extensively, the Second World War period was a subject of some discussion and controversy. On account of his Jewish origin, he was first arrested and moved from the Lwów ghetto to the 'Laokoon' factory and then imprisoned in KL Auschwitz-Birkenau and in KL Buchenwald. Fleck produced the anti-typhus vaccine in the chemo-bacteriological laboratory in the Jewish Hospital at Kuszewicza Street and in the 'Laokoon' factory in Lwów. During his incarceration in KL Auschwitz-Birkenau, Fleck worked in the camp laboratory in Block 10 carrying out bacteriological studies for the inmates and then was assigned to work in the Wasserman station in Rajsko. From January 1944 Fleck performed routine laboratory tests in Block 50 in KL Buchenwald. Though Fleck had a privileged life in the camp, he participated in the sabotage activities organized by the camp resistance.

Oswaldo Cruz e a controvérsia da sorologia / Oswaldo Cruz and the serology controversy

A fim de analisar a discussão sobre a eficácia do soro antipestoso produzido pelo Instituto de Manguinhos no começo do século XX, faz-se breve apreciação da atuação de Oswaldo Cruz à frente da Diretoria de Saúde Pública e, em seguida, aborda-se a polêmica propriamente por meio da sua correspondência com Miguel Pereira, Vital Brazil, Chapot Prévost e Francisco Fajardo. Evidencia-se, nessas cartas, o grau de incerteza e experimentação que marcava a bacteriologia no Brasil daquele momento, embora, publicamente, ela se apresentasse como conhecimento seguro e inquestionável. Mostra-se como argumentos de natureza extra científica interferem no desenvolvimento de pesquisas e na aceitação dos produtos médicos. (AU)

Laboratories, museums, and the comparative perspective: Alan A. Boyden's quest for objectivity in serological taxonomy, 1924-1962.

The rise of experimentation and the decline of natural history constitute the historiographic backbone to most narratives about the history of the life sciences in the twentieth century. As I argue here, however, natural history practices, such as the collection adn comparison of data from numerous species, adn experimental practices have actually converged throughout the century, giving rise to a new hybrid research culture which is essential to the contemporary life sciences. Looking at some examples of researchers who studied experimentally the relationships between organisms offers a unique window into how the norms, values, and practices of natural history entered the laboratory and, conversely, how the norms, values, and practices of experimentation transformed natural history. this paper concentrates on a largely overlooked episode in the history of the life sciences: the development of Alan A. Boyden's serological taxonomy. In the United States, from the late 1920s to the early 1960s, he was the most prominent advocate of this experimental approach in natural history. His quest for an objective method to understand the relationships among species, his creation of a serological museum where he could apply his comparative perspective, and his continued negotiations between natural historical and experimental traditions, illustrate the rise of a new hybrid research culture in the twentieth century. It also helps us solve a historiographic puzzle, namely how biological diversity become so central in the experimental life sciences, i.e., in a tradition which we generally understand as having focused on a few model organisms, and which relegated the study of biodiversity to naturalists and their museums.

[The historical meaning of serological surveys as a laboratory technology applied to the immunization campaigns. The case of poliomyelitis in Spain]. / El significado histórico de las encuestas de seroprevalencia como tecnología de laboratorio aplicada a las campañas de inmunización. El caso de la poliomielitis en España.

The aim of the paper is to analyse the introduction, use and diffusion of the serological surveys, a public health technology on the borderline between epidemiology and laboratory, in connection with poliomyelitis in Spain during the Francoism period. Within the framework of the "new history" of medical technologies and innovations, the serological surveys played an important role both in the improvement of knowledge on socio-demographic distribution and the health politics arena.

Collecting true blue blood: a journey to the heart of 1960s biology.

Mabel Boyden was a biologist, active in the field of immunochemical research and also a custodian of the Serological Museum at Rutgers University between 1948 and 1974. Her recollection of a trip to obtain the blood of the horseshoe crab is revealing: it contains figures of speech that give a glimpse into the immunological discourse of the mid-1960s; it shows how her thinking was torn between different ways of doing biology; and it offers an insight into the transition of biology into the modern, molecular era.

[Seroimmunological studies by Dr Hideyo Noguchi - introduction and illustration of his seroimmunological research, with a connection to recent seroimmunology].

Dr. Hideyo Noguchi (Noguchi) is the most well-known scientist in Japanese history because of his eventful life and research on syphilis and yellow fever; however, details of his scientific research, especially in the seroimmunological field, performed in the USA have not been recognized. More than 200 papers were published, mostly in English, and about half of them were published in J. Exp. Medicine. Arbitrary evaluation was performed of his research, recognizing the value of his seroimmunological studies. In this lecture, the background at that time and a small part of the contents of 10 papers on serology and biochemistry are introduced and explained, in connection with recent seroimmunology: (1) On snake venom: In the first experiment, under the guidance of Drs. Flexner and Mitchel, many new findings were obtained regarding bacteriolysis, hemolysis, leucolysis, and the toxicity of venoms in relation to antibody and complement. Especially, the bacteriolytic activity of serum induced by venom was disclosed later to be caused by the activation of alternative pathway of complement by a factor termed cobra venom factor. (2) Heat-stable anticomplementary factor: Preheating sera produced an anticomplementary factor, termed protectin. (3) The pleurality of cytolysins (natural antibody) in sera not only of mammals but also of a reptile and an amphibian was identified. (4) Toxin-antitoxin reaction: One of the fundamental analyses of the antigen-antibody reaction. (5) Gel diffusion of antigen and antibody. (6) Various factors affecting the Wassermann reaction, in which the butyric acid method to detect globulin was introduced. (7) A new and simple method for the serodiagnosis of syphilis. (8) A study of syphilis antigen, in which the antigenicity of acetone-soluble lipid was stressed. (9) Pure cultivation of Treponema pallidum. (10) Demonstration of T. pallidum in the brain. More than 40 papers on syphilis were published, for which he was nominated for the Nobel prize 3 times.

History of forensic serology and molecular genetics in the sphere of activity of the German Society for Forensic Medicine.

In the field of forensic serology, essential developmental impulses have come from the sphere of activity of the German Society for Forensic Medicine. Among these are the orientating enzyme-reactive and specific tests for blood using crystallization tests, the determination of the species-specificity of the donor of the stain and the beginning of the individualization of a stain to its donor. Pioneering work has also been done in the development of blood group serology of the conventional markers. DNA analysis originated in the Anglo-Saxon region. The German Society for Forensic Medicine also contributed to its further progress and essentially influenced it e.g. by the discovery of microsatellite markers, including STRs, by the validation of numerous test methods, by optimization of these methods and by preliminary work for the use of mass spectrometry in DNA analysis.

[Etiological research in medicine in Vienna circa 1900, at the time of Karl Landsteiner]. / Zur ätiologischen Forschung in der Medizin in Wien um 1900, zur Zeit Karl Landsteiners.

By the end of the 19th century theoretical etiological research became more and more important in medical science. Anton Weichselbaum focused on bacteriology in the field of pathological anatomy and Rudolf Paltauf founded an Institute of Serotherapy, thus taking account of this new development. Progress made in laboratory medicine due to the work of a number of scientists in Vienna was of both fundamental and practical significance for the advancement of medicine.

[Prof. Morawiecki: the oculist and outstanding expert in immunology, immunopathology and serology]. / Prof. Jerzy Morawiecki - okulista, wybitny znwca immunologii, immunopathologii i serologii.

Jerzy Morawiecki (1910-1997) was a man with versatile interests. Being an assistant of Professor Wladyslaw Szumowski in the Jagiellonian University he published papers devoted to the history of medicine. After getting his medical degree in 1937 he worked in the Public Health Department in Warsaw under the very well known Ludwik Hirszfeld. There he carried out pioneer studies on the blood groups, the very beginning of a new science - immunology which moulded the scientific interests to which he was faithful for the rest of his life. Under the Nazi occupation of Warsaw he managed to send his paper on blood groups to Switzerland where it was published in 1941. Between 1946 and 1992 he published 18 papers in the field of immunology mainly of the eye. He did pioneer work on the precipitation of antigens and antibodies. The phenomenon of precipitation lines in the cornea is quoted in the literature as the "Morawiecki phenomenon" or as "Morawiecki' lines". He presented the original hypothesis of immunotherapy of intravitreal hemorrhages - the method of acceleration of hemorrhage absorption. The use of Anti-RhD antibodies subsequently became the most effective method of intraocular hemorrhages.