Blood Typing

1
Blood Typing

• 1901 Karl Landsteiner (Austria) discovered
  blood groups
• Won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in
  1930
• Before this, many patients died of blood
  transfusions due to blood clumping.
• Clumped RBCs can crack and cause toxic reactions.

2
Wet Samples vs. Dry Samples

• Wet Samples can tell an investigator
• Is it blood?
• Human or animal?
• Type and subgroups
• Blood alcohol content
• Venous, fetal, or menstrual?
• Presence of drugs
• Possible ways the blood was deposited

3
Reliability in Court

• Can NOT be used to positively ID a person, but
  CAN be used to rule someone out.