--- title: Google Doodle Honors Blood Group Discoverer Karl Landsteiner description: The Austrian-American biologist Karl Landsteiner, in 1901, discovered the four blood types — A, B, AB and O canonical: https://time.com/4367773/google-doodle-karl-landsteiner-discover-blood-groups/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-14T04:19:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:33:19.387Z og:title: New Google Doodle Honors Biologist Karl Landsteiner og:description: He is credited with discovering the existence of blood groups og:url: https://time.com/4367773/google-doodle-karl-landsteiner-discover-blood-groups/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c95f35537342d49/698897b4a988caba426b8398/screen-shot-2016-06-14-at-11-34-39-am.png?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Screen Shot 2016-06-14 at 11.34.39 AM og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: New Google Doodle Honors Biologist Karl Landsteiner twitter:description: He is credited with discovering the existence of blood groups twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c95f35537342d49/698897b4a988caba426b8398/screen-shot-2016-06-14-at-11-34-39-am.png?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # New Google Doodle Honors Karl Landsteiner, Discoverer of Blood Groups by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jun 14, 2016 4:19 AM UTC  Google Doodle honoring Karl Landsteiner Google Doodle honoring Karl LandsteinerGoogle by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jun 14, 2016 4:19 AM UTC Karl Landsteiner, the subject of Tuesday’s [Google Doodle](https://www.google.com/doodles/karl-landsteiners-148th-birthday), may not be a household name, but his work helps save millions of lives every day. The Austrian-American biologist, in 1901, discovered the four blood types — A, B, AB and O — leading to the first-ever blood transfusion six years later. Landsteiner also collaborated with scientist Erwin Popper to lay the foundation that led to the discovery of the poliovirus, thus enabling the treatment of a disease that afflicted millions of children. “On what would be his 148th birthday, we thank you, Karl Landsteiner, for helping us lead longer, healthier lives,” Google said in a statement. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4367773/google-doodle-karl-landsteiner-discover-blood-groups/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4367773/google-doodle-karl-landsteiner-discover-blood-groups/"},"headline":"New Google Doodle Honors Karl Landsteiner, Discoverer of Blood Groups","datePublished":"2016-06-14T04:19:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:33:19.387Z","description":"On what would have been his 148th birthday","url":"https://time.com/4367773/google-doodle-karl-landsteiner-discover-blood-groups/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Google Doodle"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c95f35537342d49/698897b4a988caba426b8398/screen-shot-2016-06-14-at-11-34-39-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c95f35537342d49/698897b4a988caba426b8398/screen-shot-2016-06-14-at-11-34-39-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Screen Shot 2016-06-14 at 11.34.39 AM","caption":"google doodle karl landsteiner","creditText":"Google","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4367773/google-doodle-karl-landsteiner-discover-blood-groups/","name":"New Google Doodle Honors Karl Landsteiner, Discoverer of Blood Groups"}}]}] ```