Dr. John Finlayson

• Grew up in NJ, DE, VA, OH. Went to college in Ohio, was pre-med. Instead did a masters and PhD in Biochemistry at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Was able to do draft deferment for another year to do a post-doctoral fellowship at the Institute of Radiophysics in Sweden.
• Came back to US in fall of 1958 and got a commission in the Public Health Service. Was assigned to the Laboratory of Blood and Blood Products in DBS. He did his two years of service there. After 2.5 years went into inactive reserve for PHS and then filled his own role as a civil servant. Then never left. Was there for transition from NIH to FDA. He worked in the Coagulation Section of the Lab when still under NIH.
• In the 1950s, the NIH Blood Bank was part of the Laboratory of Blood and Blood Products. At some point in the late 1950s or early 1960s, the blood bank (which was located in the basement of Clinical Center) got administratively separated out from the Laboratory of Blood and Blood Products and became part of the Clinical Center (Dept. of Transfusion Medicine).
• Worked on plasma derivatives most of his career, especially as related to hemophilia and Factor VIII (not licensed until 1966) derivatives.

NIH oral history interview (took photos at museum) from 2002. FDA oral history from 2009 is online.