Professor Ronald Finn (12 June 1930-21 May 2004) was a clinician and academic born in Liverpool.

His research led to the development of a vaccine for Rh-negative mothers to protect their unborn babies at risk of developing Rh haemolytic disease.

He began research on the interaction of the ABO blood groups and Rh factors in 1958. This led to the discovery that foetal red blood cells entered the mother's bloodstream usually at delivery and that, when the fetus and mother were ABO incompatible, the mother's immune system destroyed the cells before she could become sensitised to Rh antigen. In 1960 he suggested that if an Rh-negative mother were given anti-Rh antibody soon enough, any foetal red blood cells in her circulation would be inactivated before her immune system could become sensitised to Rh antigen. He was able to prove this in a clinical trial along with Cyril Clarke among high-risk Rh-negative women in 1964.

Finn studied medicine at Liverpool University and trained at Sefton General Hospital in 1966 and Liverpool Royal Infirmary from 1978 where he was director of the renal unit. He retired from clinical work in 1997 and was appointed visiting professor in immunology at the University of Liverpool in 2000.

Finn was also interested in allergy and this led to studies in clinical immunology and food intolerance. He was a founding member of what is now the British Society for Allergy, Environmental, and Nutritional Medicine.

Sources:

The Lancet and British Medical Journal-Obituaries