Pieces to the Puzzle

Kingdon Lou is a guy that I haven't ever read about, but he has played a significant role in the history of modern science.

He has a very interesting personal history, being a Chinese American who served in the Navy during both World War II on a Destroyer and during the Korean War. He worked at Hyland Labs, part of Travenol, which is part of Baxter - as did my father.

During this time Immunology was in its infancy. Lab tests consisted of doing blood counts, urine testing, and basic chemistry tests to establish the diagnosis of a disease state.

Hyland had just one competitor at the time, a german company named Behringwerke. That is, until Kallestad came into being.

Kingdon is in the process of telling me the story of the beginnings of Kallestad Labs. He's been sending me an e-mail a day and I'm on the edge of my seat clicking refresh all day long waiting for the next installment.

He's inadvertently filling me in on some of my family history - some things that never made sense before are getting dots connected. He's also telling me some things I never knew about modern science.

For instance - rabbit tests actually existed, and were pretty much the only means of diagnosing pregnancy through most of the sixties. The modern pregnancy tests that we use today are nearly the same as the ones developed at Hyland while my Dad and Kingdon were working there (though he hasn't been specific about whether either of them worked on it, he has mentioned how nice it would be to even get a one cent royalty on all the pregnancy tests sold today).

It really is starting to click to me how important diagnostic reagents are and how important Kallestad was in the whole scheme of things. Think of where we would be today if you couldn't detect Herpes, Rubela, or HIV.

I've done some important work in my life. Most of it would have gotten done by somebody had I not been involved. Things may have been done differently or taken longer, but they would have gotten done. The same can't be said for my father's work. Without him, there was no Kallestad Labs. Without Kallestad creating competition and pushing for the development of new products, new procedures, and new science where would we be today?

I hadn't realized that immunology was so young in the '60s. This is all so very interesting.

By the way.. here's something I find fun and interesting. The pregnancy tests commonly available in drug stores use Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assays (ELISA) to detect the human chorionic gondotropin hormone in urine. My father at the time of this development knew and fell in love with my mother under her modelling name - Elise.

Coincidence? Maybe. Knowing my Dad's propensity for pulling off elaborate practical jokes it isn't out of the question. Still fun and interesting.