Agglutination (biology)

Agglutination is a reaction in which particles (as red blood cells or bacteria) suspended in a liquid collect into clumps usually as a response to a specific antibody.

This occurs in biology in two main examples: Hemagglutination is the process by which red blood cells agglutinate, meaning clump or clog.

Agglutination is commonly used as a method of identifying specific bacterial antigens and the identity of such bacteria, and therefore is an important technique in diagnosis.

Two bacteriologists, Herbert Edward Durham (1866-1945) and Max von Gruber (1853–1927), discovered specific agglutination in 1896.

French physician Fernand Widal (1862–1929) put Gruber and Durham's discovery to practical use later in 1896, using the reaction as the basis for a test for typhoid fever.