Polio and nobel prizes: Looking back 50 years

Abstract

In 1954, John Enders, Thomas Weller, and Frederick Robbins were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discovery of the ability of poliomyelitis viruses to grow in cultures of various types of tissue."5370 This discovery provided for the first time opportunities to produce both inactivated and live polio vaccines. By searching previously sealed Nobel Committee archives, we were able to review the deliberations that led to the award. It appears that Sven Gard, who was Professor of Virus Research at the Karolinska Institute and an adjunct member of the Nobel Committee at the time, played a major role in the events leading to the awarding of the Prize. It appears that Gard persuaded the College of Teachers at the Institute to decide not to follow the recommendation by their Nobel Committee to give the Prize to Vincent du Vigneaud. Another peculiar feature of the 1954 Prize is that Weller and Robbins were included based on only two nominations submitted for the first time that year. In his speech at the Nobel Prize ceremony, Gard mentioned the importance of the discovery for the future production of vaccines, but emphasized the implications of this work for growing many different, medically important viruses. We can only speculate on why later nominations highlighting the contributions of scientists such as Jonas Salk, Hilary Koprowski, and Albert Sabin in the development of poliovirus vaccines have not been recognized by a Nobel Prize.

Yellow fever

“…Max Theiler, of the Rockefeller Foundation, received in 1951 the Nobel Prize of Medicine for such discovery. 4 Since then, vaccination campaigns in endemic countries have been the central axis that has significantly reduced the number of cases in the world and in Brazil. 5 Today, being vaccinated against yellow fever is a condition for entry into several countries due to the risk of contracting the disease at the destination or the possibility of introducing the virus into an epidemiologically compatible environment.…”

Unsung hero: Donald Darrow Matson’s legacy in pediatric neurosurgery

“…85 For his work culturing the poliovirus, Enders was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1954. 28,72,74 It is somewhat remarkable that it was not until 1956, a full 2 years after he received the Nobel Prize, that Enders was promoted to the rank of professor at HMS.…”

Live Attenuated Vaccines for the Immunoprophylaxis

“…Уэллером и Ф.Ч. Робинсом способности вируса полиомиелита расти в куль-турах различных типов тканей, значительно рас-ширили вирусологические исследования по из-учению и установлению этиологической роли различных возбудителей и получению штаммов различных вирусов в качестве основы для вак-цин [9,68]. Кроме того, открытие чувствительно-сти некоторых видов обезьян ко многим возбу-дителям инфекционных болезней людей, опре-делило использование низших приматов для экспериментального моделирования и изучения той или иной формы заболевания людей [22,39].…”