As practical procedures were developed, capable of use in large-scale production, the methods evolved in the Pilot Plant were used on a steadily expanding scale in seven pharmaceutical firms under Navy contracts.

This work resulted in the production of serium albumin, gamma globulin, fibrin products for brain surgery, and other parts of the coagulation mechanism for chemical and clinical study.

After the war there was a return to fundamental research, and out of it, in October 1950, Cohn came up with his first mobile blood fractionation plant that could go to the donors. It was housed in a 32-foot trailer-truck so this refrigerated lab could go along with Red Cross Bloodmibiles processing could start within a few moments after collection. By November the truck was rendered obsolete by the development of the newer methods.

How the Donor Sees It

By looking in a mirror suspended above his head, a donor can watch the small apparatus that is the object of all this research. Only about six-cubic feet in size, this transparent-walled blood fractionator will be the pilot model for future production.

Through a non-wettable plastic tube, which avoids damage to delicate formed elements, heretofore caused by collecting with glass or rubber tubing, the blood flows into a column of resinous beads (called an ion exchange column). Here calcium is removed to prevent clotting. On this resin are collected platelets, tiny disk-like formed elements of the blood which initiate the clotting process, obtained in this machinery for the first time in substantial yield.

By passage through a heat-exchange unit the blood is next rapidly cooled to the optimum temperature for its preservation. It then passes into a centrifuge where the plasma red and white cells are separated from each other. The heavier red cells pass through a high-density solution of salts and sugars and remain in the centrifuge bowl.

The Complicated Process

The white cells pass through and are carefully collected in a second centrifuge. Meanwhile the plasma--the liquid medium in which the cells are suspended--flows into a mixing vessel where zinc salts are added to precipitate the gamma globulins of the blood and certain other plasma proteins.

Gamma globulins, the immunity-bearing proteins of the blood, have come into general use for protection against measles. The possibilities both of the effectiveness of these globulins against other diseases and of their further separation to yield specific antibodies pose a challenge to chemist and oltnician alike.

The components not precipitated by the zinc salts form a Stable Plasma Protein Solution which passes through a second ion exchange column to remove the sine. This solution has been successfully injected into soldiers and civilians during and after World War II.

At the dedication ceremonies a year ago Cohn pointed out that "neither alcohol, very low temperature, drying equipment, nor radiation equipment for virus sterilization is necessary" to produce Stable Plasma Protein Solution which, he believes, "will replace serum albumin, dry plasma, and wet plasma."

Both dry plasma and scrum albumin were used in World War II in the treatment of shocks and burns, this function being the replacement and maintenance of fluids lost from the blood streams.

Thus within a matter of minutes after a donation, the removal from the blood of its unstable components and its separation into its major fractions is accomplished. Speed is essential in blood processing: deterioration starts as soon as the blood is drawn from the donor's veins.

Cohn's Administrative Polices