Charles Drew:Inventor of the Blood Bank

(1904-1950)

Biography

• Born in Washington, D.C.

• Great athlete, Average student

• Middle class interracial neighborhood

• He was African American, but part English, Scot, and Indian

• Athletic scholarship to Amherst College

Accomplishments

• 1938- Residency at McGill University, Canada

• 1940- Doctor of Medical Science degree from Columbia University

• 1941- Established American Red Cross Blood Bank and resigned the same year

• 1935-1950 Professor at Howard University

Importance

• Civil Rights- accomplishments of an African American

• Education- Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles

• Medicine- universal use of plasma as a blood “substitute”

• Science- understanding properties of blood and transfusions

Acceptance

• His research was accepted immediately. His findings saved lives of American Citizens and therefore was not questioned because of race.

• However his resignation as Director of the ARC Blood Bank and his death are both surrounded by racial tensions.

Myth?

• Dr. Drew died in a car accident near Burlington, N.C. It has been rumored that he was denied treatment by a whites only hospital. It has been documented by the other African American doctors in the car that the owner of the hospital himself helped attempt to save Dr. Drew.

• Time Magazine March,1968 printed an article stating that he “bled to death” after “he was turned away by an all white hospital.”

Relevance to Biology Curriculum

• Competency Goal 2• 2.03 Investigate and analyze the cell as a living

system including:– Maintenance of homeostasis.– Movement of materials into and out of cells..

• 2.03, 3) Discussion of Charles Drew and his impact on blood donation and blood banks. Energy use and release in biochemical reactions

• 2.04 Investigate and describe the structure and function of enzymes and explain their importance in biological systems.

• 2.05 Investigate and analyze the bioenergetic reactions:

Relevance to Biology Strand:Science and Technology in Society• “Science and technology also reflect a

culture's values. Consider, for example, how the acceptance of new ideas can be constrained by the environment in which they are conceived. Galileo's efforts to change perceptions of Earth's place in the solar system”

References• http://www.cdrewu.edu/• http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/drew_c.htm• http://www.ncpublicschools.org/curriculum/science/scos/1999/biology/resources/• Gordon, R.C. Charles R. Drew: surgeon, scientist, and educator. Journal of

investigative surgery: the official journal of the Academy of Surgical Research. 2005 Sep-Oct;18(5):223-5

• Black Vacuum. Time Magazine, March 29, 1968.• Trice, Linda. Charles Drew: Pioneer of Blood Plasma. New York : McGraw-Hill, 2000.• Wynes, Charles E. Charles Richard Drew: The man and the myth. University of

Illinois Press. 1988.• Human body: systems at work. V.1 Circulatory system: the plasma pipeline. The

Cambridge Research Group, Ltd. Storyline Pictures. Publisher Lawrenceville, NJ. Cambridge Educational, c2005.