George Judson
Engineer George Judson and oncologist Emil J Freireich developed the first continuous-flow blood cell separator, advancing the treatment of leukemia and enabling breakthroughs in new approaches in fighting cancer and other diseases.
Judson was born in Beacon, New York, in 1918. He studied civil engineering at the University of Kansas, earning his bachelor’s degree in 1943. In 1952, Judson began working at the IBM Development Laboratory in Endicott, New York, where he contributed to the design of card readers, printers and other peripheral equipment. A decade later, Judson led IBM into a new field with his idea for the continuous-flow blood cell separator.
In 1962, Judson’s 17-year-old son Tom was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia, a cancer characterized by an excess of abnormal white blood cells. When Tom was admitted to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) service at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, Judson was given a tour of the blood bank. He was shown the leukemia treatment procedure to remove diseased white blood cells from the bloodstream, and Judson saw that the process of collecting and separating blood was lengthy and difficult.
This process involved removing units of blood, spinning the blood in a centrifuge, expressing the plasma into a satellite bag and separating the white cells into another bag, then recombining the red cells and plasma to be administered to the patient. This process needed to be repeated many times.
Calling on his engineering expertise, Judson wondered if this process could be done on a continuous-flow basis. His thinking was informed by a project IBM had recently completed at the University of Pennsylvania involving a heart/lung machine. To enable open heart surgery, this machine took large amounts of blood and pumped it around the heart and lungs through an oxygenator. “There ought to be a way that we could hook up a person to one of these machines and separate out the blood components, that is, take what we want and have everything else go back,” Judson said.
Judson brought his idea to Freireich, a senior investigator and director of the leukemia program at NCI. Freireich had previously discovered that transfusion of platelets from freshly donated blood could prevent excessive bleeding in leukemia patients. To make this procedure feasible, Freireich needed an efficient method to isolate large amounts of platelets from donor blood, so he sketched some broad requirements for Judson’s idea.
IBM gave Judson a year’s paid sabbatical to develop the device with Freireich at NIH. Work on the continuous-flow blood cell separator began in Freireich’s lab in June 1962. Using parts salvaged from IBM and purchased from hardware stores, by 1963 they had built a functioning prototype. IBM then signed a contract with NCI to complete the project.
At the IBM Development Laboratory, Judson led a group of engineers to further develop the blood cell separator. A major breakthrough in blood processing, this invention provided practical, lifesaving treatments for leukemia patients by efficiently moving a donor or patient’s blood through a centrifuge, separating and removing blood components and then returning the rest of the blood to the donor or patient, all in a continuous flow. Today, blood cell separators are used at blood banks, hospitals and laboratories worldwide. In addition to treating leukemia, they also are used to treat sickle cell disease, acute Guillain-Barré syndrome and symptoms associated with cancer treatments, and to collect peripheral blood stem cells for bone marrow transplants and lymphocytes used for CAR-T cell cancer immunotherapy.
In 1966, Judson was named an IBM Fellow. The highest technical position in the company, it gave him the freedom to pursue any project he chose. He found his next challenge when the director of the American Red Cross Blood Services program learned of the blood cell separator and wanted to know if a similar machine could be developed to remove glycerol from packed red cells, significantly improving blood transfusions. Judson led the development of the IBM 2991 Blood Cell Processor, which became available in 1972.
Judson’s work in advancing modern blood therapy was recognized by IBM’s East Fishkill, New York, campus, where the George T. Judson Blood Donor Center was named in his honor. Shortly before his retirement, Judson said, “I was given the opportunity to pursue my interests in the field of blood cell separation, and I am truly grateful. I hope we have not only benefited the medical profession but have opened up a new field of endeavor for IBM.”