Hemoglobin by molecules such as carbon monoxide (for example, from tobacco smoking, exhaust gas, and incomplete combustion in furnaces). CO competes with oxygen at the heme binding site. Hemoglobin's binding affinity for CO is 250 times greater than its affinity for oxygen, meaning that small amounts of CO dramatically reduce hemoglobin's ability to transport oxygen. Since carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless and tasteless gas, and poses a potentially fatal threat, carbon monoxide detectors have become commercially available to warn of dangerous levels in residences. When hemoglobin combines with CO, it forms a very bright red compound called carboxyhemoglobin, which may
Hemoglobin Hopkins-2 endocarditis and thrombosis. Osler's initial observations of platelets catalyzed the study of blood and hematology at Hopkins and in other research environments. Beginning in 1920, doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital conducted research on sickle cell anemia, or sickle cell disease. Although their conclusions surrounding the disease are outdated, Doctors Taliaferro and Huck discovered a latent form of sickle cell anemia. Their study on sickle cell anemia was the first of many to occur at Hopkins. In 1940, Irving Sherman, a medical student at Johns Hopkins, correctly identified the deoxygenation of hemoglobin in sickle cell patients after he noted refraction patterns