Landsteiner

The concept of immunoassay was first described in 1945 when Landsteiner suggested that antibodies could bind selectively to small molecules (haptens) when they were conjugated to a larger carrier molecule. This hapten-specific concept was explored by Yalow and Berson in the late 1950s, and resulted in an immunoassay that was applied to insulin monitoring in humans. This pioneering work set the stage for the rapid advancement of immunochemical methods for clinical use. 

L. Landsteiner, The Specificity of Serological Reactions, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA (1945). 

Landsteiner K, Jacobs J Studies on the sensitization of animals with simple chemical compounds—11. f Exp Med 64 625-639,1936... 

These have proved invaluable sources of blood group A substances, and many workers have studied the active material isolated from them. Meyer, Smyth and Palmer obtained from hog stomach a polysaccharide which was highly active serologically and contained W-acetyl-D-glucos-amine and D-galactose residues. Landsteiner and his coworkers obtained similar substances from hog stomach and pig pepsin. The following method used for isolating the substance from pepsin is typical. 

The saliva of secretors has been used as a source of blood group substances in several investigations. Landsteiner obtained very active material from horse saliva and was able to show that it contained D-galac-tose and a hexosamine. More recently the same author compared the blood group substances from the saliva of individuals of groups A, B and 0 and found that there was very little difference in their properties (see Table III). 

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