Quick Facts
Biography
Ernst Witebsky, also Ernest Witebsky (* 3 September 1901 in Frankfurt am Main; † 7 December 1969) was a German-American immunologist.
From 1920 to 1926 Witebsky studied medicine at the University of Frankfurt and the University of Heidelberg. He stayed at Heidelberg after graduating and worked with Dr. Hans Sachs. At Heidelberg he primarily worked with brain and organ tissue, as well as blood group antigens.
Leaving Germany as a result of Nazi pressure, he joined the Medical School of the University at Buffalo in 1935.
Achievements
Witebsky helped develop procedures for the isolation and partial characterization of A and B blood antigens. He also began the practice of neutralization of certain antibodies in the blood of universal blood donors.
In 1957 he co-authored a paper that first formulated "Witebsky's postulates" that determine whether a disease entity can be regarded as an autoimmune disease. They were modified in 1993.
Witebsky received the Karl Landsteiner Award in 1959 for his work with blood antibodies.