-
Claudius Galenus, known as Galen, becomes one of the most important physicians in history, second only to Hippocrates in influence by dissecting and experimenting on animals, he proves that arteries contain blood, but also suggests that the system of arteries and veins are completely distinct
-
Eminent Cairo physician and author Ibn al-Nafis discovers and describes pulmonary circulation -- the flow of blood to and from the lungs.
-
Eminent Cairo criticizes Galen in the second edition of his seven volume work detailing human anatomy, DE FABRICA.
-
Fabricius, the anatomist from Padua, publishes his work ON THE VALVES IN VEINS, featuring the first drawings of vein valves.
-
William Harvey publishes his masterwork, and in it, he explains that blood circulates within the body and is pumped by the heart.
-
Jan Swammerdam, a 21-year-old Dutch microscopist, is thought to be the first person to observe and describe red blood cells.
-
Using a rudimentary microscope, Italian anatomist Marcello Malpighi observes the capillary system, the network of fine vessels that connect the arteries and the veins.
-
In England, Richard Lower performs the first recorded blood transfusion in animals.
-
Before the Royal Society in England, Drs. Richard Lower and Edmund King give Arthur Coga a transfusion of several ounces of sheep's blood for a fee of 20 shillings
-
Dr. Denis sues Antoine Mauroy's widow in 1668 for slandering his reputation. The case precipitates the French Parliament's ban on all transfusions involving humans.
-
Anton van Leeuwenhoek, a Dutch microscopist, provides a precise description of red blood cells, and approximates their size as "25,000 times smaller than a fine grain of sand."
-
William Hewson details his research on blood coagulation, including his success at arresting clotting and isolating a substance from plasma he dubs "coagulable lymph." The substance is now more commonly known as fibrogen, a key protein in the clotting process.
-
British obstetrician and physiologist James Blundell performs the first recorded human-to-human blood transfusion.
-
William Osler observes that small cell fragments from the bone marrow make up the bulk of clots formed in blood vessels; these cell fragments will come to be called platelets.
-
Austrian physician Karl Landsteiner publishes a paper detailing his discovery of the three main human blood groups -- A, B, and C, which he later changes to O.
-
Dr. Landsteiner's colleagues Alfred von Decastello and Adriano Sturli identify a fourth blood group -- AB -- that causes agglutination in the red cells of both groups "A" and "B."
-
Dr. Ludvig Hektoen recommends checking the blood of donors and recipients for signs of incompatibility prior to transfusion.
-
Dr. Reuben Ottenberg performs the first transfusion using cross matching, and over the next several years successfully uses the procedure in 128 cases, virtually eliminating transfusion reactions
-
Researchers Albert Hustin of Brussels and Luis Agote of Buenos Aires discover that adding sodium citrate to blood will prevent it from clotting.
-
Dr. Richard Weil determines that citrated blood can be refrigerated and stored for a few days and then successfully transfused.
-
While serving in the U.S. Army, Dr. Oswald Robertson establishes the first blood depot when he collects and stores type O blood with citrate-glucose solution, in advance of the arrival of casualties during the Battle of Cambrai in World War I.
-
Percy Lane Oliver begins operating a blood donor service out of his home in London,recruiting volunteers who agree to be on 24-hour call and to travel to local hospitals to give blood as the need arises.
-
The Soviets are the first to establish a network of facilities to collect and store blood for use in transfusions at hospitals.
-
Physician Federico Duran-Jorda establishes the Barcelona Blood-Transfusion Service, where they collect blood, test it, pool it by blood group, preserve and store it in bottles under refrigeration, and by way of vehicles fitted with refrigerators, transport it to front line hospitals during the Spanish Civil War.
-
The American Red Cross agrees to organize a civilian blood donor service to collect blood plasma for the war effort, and the Red Cross collects over 13 million units of blood over the course of the war.
-
As an alternative to the Red Cross blood centers being set up across the country in the postwar period, directors of independent, community blood banks join together to form a national network of blood banks called the American Association of Blood Banks.
-
Dr. Carl W. Walter, a trained surgeon, develops a plastic bag for the collection of blood, which revolutionizes blood collection.
-
Dr. Max Perutz working at Cambridge University, England, is able to unravel the structure of hemoglobin, the protein within red blood cells that carries oxygen.
-
Dr. Judith Pool discovers that slowly thawed frozen plasma yields deposits high in Factor VIII. The deposits called cryoprecipitates are found to have much greater clotting power than plasma and given to hemophiliacs to stop bleeding episodes, preventing the need for hemophiliacs to travel to the hospital to be treated, since cyro can be kept frozen at home and infused, after being thawed, by a physician.
-
Dr. Baruch Blumberg of the National Institutes of Health, identifies a substance on the surface of the hepatitis B virus that triggers the production of antibodies. His work leads to the development of a test to detect the presence of hepatitis B antibodies, thereby identifying infected donors; the test is mandated by the FDA.
-
The first cases of a syndrome initially called GRID (Gay-related Immunodeficiency Disease), due to its prevalence among gay men, are reported. It is later renamed AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).
-
When hemophiliacs also begin to develop GRID, Dr. Bruce Evatt begins to suspect that the syndrome may be blood borne and presents his theories at a meeting of a group of the U.S. Public Health Service
-
Researchers at Dr. Luc Montagnier's lab at the Institut Pasteur, in France, isolate the virus that causes AIDS.
-
Dr. Robert Gallo of the NIH announces that he's identified the virus that causes AIDS, which he calls HTLV III (human T-cell lymphotropic virus), at a press conference
-
After dozens of Americans are infected with AIDS from blood transfusions, the first blood-screening test to detect the presence or absence of HIV antibodies -- the ELISA test -- is licensed by the U.S. government. The test is universally adopted by American blood banks and plasma centers.
