Philip Levine (August 10, 1900 – October 18, 1987) was an immuno-hematologist whose clinical research advanced knowledge on the Rhesus factor, Hemolytic disease of the newborn (HDN) and blood transfusion.
Life and career Levine was born in Kletsk, near Minsk (now in Belarus), then in the Russian Empire. He moved with his family to New York when he was 8 years old where his family took on a more English sounding surname. The family settled in Brooklyn where Levine graduated from Boys' High School. He received a bachelor's degree at City College and a master's degree and, in 1923, an M.D. degree at Cornell University Medical School. About 1925, Levine became assistant to Karl Landsteiner at the Rockefeller Institute, New York City. In 1932, he took up research work on the bacteriophage at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Back in the east in 1935, he worked as a bacteriologist and serologist at Newark Beth Israel Hospital, New Jersey where, in 1939, 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 fetus's red blood cells.
In 1944, Levine started a center for blood group research at the Ortho Research Foundation, Raritan, New Jersey. Ortho Research Foundation is now part of Ortho Clinical Diagnostics. Levine retired from Ortho in 1965, and this research center was renamed the Philip Levine Laboratories; he continued in emeritus status there until 1985.
Awards Extracted from the complete list of honors awarded to Levine in the Giblett publication on pp. 335f.
1944: Fellow of the American College of Physicians 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 1951: Passano Foundation Award 1956: AABB Karl Landsteiner Award 1956: Townsend Harris Medal, Alumni Association of New York City College 1959: Award of Merit of the Netherlands Red Cross 1960: Johnson Medal for research and development in immunohematology 1961: Life membership in the Harvey Society 1964:First Franz Oehlecker Award from German Society for Blood Transfusion 1965: Medal from German Red Cross 1966: Elected to the National Academy of Sciences 1966: Clemens von Pirquet Gold Medal from the 7th Forum on Allergy 1967: Honorary Doctor of Science from Michigan State University 1978: Honorary member of the International Society of Blood Transfusion 1978: Honorary life member of the New York Academy of Sciences 1980: Karl Landsteiner Gold Medal of Netherlands Red Cross 1983: Honorary Doctor of Science, University of Wisconsin
Legacy In 1969, the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) started an award for clinical research and named it the Philip Levine Award after LevineList of recipients on PDF here
See also History of medical advances in Rh disease
References
Further reading Eloise R. Giblett: Philip Levine (1900-1987), A Biographical Memoir, National Academy of Sciences, Washington D.C. 1994 PDF Levine P. and Stetson R. E: Intra-group agglutination. J Am Med Assoc, 113: 126,1939
External links History of neonatology Lasker Foundation webpage about the 1946 Clinical Research Award Levine's obituary in the New York Times Detailed coverage of Levine's research on the Rh factor here at Lasker Foundation website National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir