Philip Levine (physician)

Philip Levine (10 August 1900 – 18 October 1987) was an imuno-hematologist whose clinical research advanced knowledge on the Rhesus factor, Hemolytic disease of the newborn (HDN) and blood transfusion. He was born in Polish Russia. He moved with his family to New York when he was 8 years old where his family took on a more English sounding surname.

In 1939 while working at the Newark Beth Israel Hospital, New Jersey, USA Philip Levine and Rufus E. Stetson published their findings about a family who had a stillborn baby in 1937 who had died of hemolytic disease of the newborn. This publication included the first suggestion that a mother could make blood group antibodies owing to immune sensitization to her fetuses red blood cells.

Awards and career

 * 1923 - Qualified as a medical doctor from Cornell University
 * 1925 (approx) - Became assistant to Karl Landsteiner at the Rockefeller Institute, New York, USA
 * 1932 - Research work on the bacteriophage at University of Wisconsin-Madison
 * 1935 - Worked as a bacteriologist and serologist at Newark Beth Israel Hospital, New Jersey, USA
 * 1944 - Levine started a centre for blood group research at the Othro Research Foundation, Raritan, New Jersey
 * 1946 - Albert Lasker Award for clinical research awarded to Levine jointly with Karl Landsteiner and Alexander Wiener for their work on the Rhesus factor, HDN and blood transfusion
 * 1969 - The American Society of Clinical Pathologists (ASCP) started an award for clinical research and named it the Philip Levine Award after Levine