Recent progress in molecular biology has led to a rapid expansion of our understanding of the proteins that are essential for hemostasis and thrombosis. The goal of the XXI Annual Scientific Symposium of the American Red Cross was to provide a forum to explore and document the impact of recombinant DNA technology in this field. The speakers described the essential features of the genes responsible for key plasma proteins important in hemostasis, including procoagulant Factors VIII and IX and anticoagulant proteins, Antithrombin III and Protein C. They emphasized the advances in recombinant...

"For the blood is the life . . . . "(Deut. 12:23) " . . . because the blood, in its value as life, makes atonement" (Lev. 17: 11) HemoPhilia is a rare disease, severe hemophilia rarer still, yet the written history of hemophilia extends back over a millennium and a half. In the ancient Middle East, blood and life were coupled. Blood was the primary substance necessary for life, given to God in sacrifice and forbidden as a food to mortals by Levitical law. Blood was essential for rites of purification and consecration. But the flow of blood during menstruation or parturition rendered a woman...