Leonard Landois was a German physiologist who was a native of Münster

Münster

Münster is an independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also capital of the local government region Münsterland...

. He studied medicine at the University of Greifswald, and was later a professor and director of the institute of physiology at Greifswald

Greifswald

Greifswald , officially, the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald is a town in northeastern Germany. It is situated in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, at an equal distance of about from Germany's two largest cities, Berlin and Hamburg. The town borders the Baltic Sea, and is crossed...

. In 1866 he became a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. He was a younger brother to zoologist Hermann Landois (1835-1905).

Leonard Landois was a pioneer in the study of blood transfusion

Blood transfusion

Blood transfusion is the process of receiving blood products into one's circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used in a variety of medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood...

s and the phenomena of agglutination

Agglutination (biology)

Agglutination is the clumping of particles. The word agglutination comes from the Latin agglutinare, meaning "to glue."This occurs in biology in three main examples:...

. In 1875 he demonstrated that when red blood cell

Red blood cell

Red blood cells are the most common type of blood cell and the vertebrate organism's principal means of delivering oxygen to the body tissues via the blood flow through the circulatory system...

s are taken from one species of animal and are mixed with serum

Blood serum

In blood, the serum is the component that is neither a blood cell nor a clotting factor; it is the blood plasma with the fibrinogens removed...

 taken from an animal of a different species, the red cells typically clump and sometimes burst (hemolyze).

Selected writings

• Über der Haarbalgparasiten des Menschen (treatise about Parasites of Humans); (1861)
• Die Transfusion des Blutes (On Blood Transfusion); (1875)
• Lehrbuch der Physiologie des Menschen (Textbook of Human Physiology); (1880)
• Die Urämie (treatise on Uremia); (1890)