Gastão Rosenfeld (born Budapest, July 26, 1912; died São Paulo, July 15, 1990), was a Brazilian physician and biomedical scientist, one of the co-discoverers of bradykinin, together with Maurício Rocha e Silva and Wilson Teixeira Beraldo, in 1949. Early life and education Rosenfeld was born in 1912 in Budapest, Hungary, to a family of Jewish origin, and came with his parents to Brazil in 1913, graduating in medicine in 1938. Career Hematology, snake venom research In 1932, he began to devote himself to Hematology. His work at the Butantan Institute, a research institution located in São Paulo. began in 1945, invited by Prof. William Otto Bier a famous bacteriologist (then director of the Institute), and soon was charged with organizing and heading the Laboratory of Hematology and being responsible for its research line on Experimental Hematology. In 1947 Dr. Rosenfeld started to work at São Paulo's Instituto Biológico, but returned to the Institute in 1951. and in 1954 took over as chief physician at the Hospital Vital Brazil, where he served until 1966. The hospital was founded by Dr. Vital Brazil, one of the world pioneers in the study of animal envenomation and was purposed as a unit of acute care for the victims of venomous animals. As such, Dr. Rosenfeld was concerned about the lack of medical knowledge about the actions of venoms on the human body and its medical therapy, at the time. Due to the fact that it was the only hospital in Brazil which was exclusively dedicated to these episodes, and, besides, since it was attached to a research and educational institution, Dr. Rosenfeld favored from the beginning the systematic observation of patients, resulting over the years in a large and original body of new knowledge about symptoms and treatment of victims of animal poisoning. This, in addition, spurred the realization of a large number of laboratory studies. Based on his experience in the field of hematology, Dr. Rosenfeld published many studies on the pathophysiology of snake bite poisoning in experimental animals, and was able to apply this rich knowledge to the clinical area. Rosenfeld was interested in the study of biochemistry of the action of snake venom toxins in animals and humans, particularly those of the Bothrops family (lancehead or jararaca), which is extremely abundant all over Brazil and which caused a great number of accidents and deaths at his time. Among other things, he