Polio Professionals


David Bodian: (1910-1992) doctor and polio researcher at Johns Hopkins, Baltimore
"Along with his colleagues, Howard Howe and Isabelle Mountain Morgan, Bodian helped lay the groundwork for the Salk and Sabin polio vaccines through their research into the neuropathology of poliomyelitis. Bodian's team demonstrated that the polio virus that was transmitted through the mouth and digestive tract was in fact three distinct types of virus, and they showed that antibodies to the virus were carried through the bloodstream, demonstrating that for a vaccine to be effective it must include antibodies recognizing all three types of virus."

John Franklin Enders (1897-1985): "American virologist and microbiologist who, with Frederick C. Robbins and Thomas H. Weller, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for 1954 for his part in cultivating the poliomyelitis virus in nonnervous-tissue cultures, a preliminary step to the development of the polio vaccine." Encyclopędia Britannica Online

Simon Flexner (1863-1946): "American pathologist and bacteriologist who led the research team that was able to produce in monkeys a nonfatal form of poliomyelitis and pass it from monkey to monkey, thus trapping a polio virus for laboratory study." Encyclopędia Britannica Online

Ross Granville Harrison (1870-1959): "American zoologist who developed the first successful animal-tissue cultures and pioneered organ-transplantation techniques." "...his culture technique was to have vital biological applications, such as its use in cancer research and the development of polio vaccines." Encyclopędia Britannica Online

Frederick Chapman Robbins: "American pediatrician and virologist who received (with John Enders and Thomas Weller) the 1954 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for successfully cultivating poliomyelitis virus in tissue cultures. This accomplishment made possible the production of polio vaccines, the development of sophisticated diagnostic methods, and the isolation of new viruses." Encyclopędia Britannica Online

Thomas H. Weller: "American physician and virologist who was the co-recipient (with John Enders and Frederick Robbins) of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1954 for the successful cultivation of poliomyelitis virus in tissue cultures. This made it possible to study the virus 'in the test tube'--a procedure that led to the development of polio vaccines." Encyclopędia Britannica Online

Martha Wollstein (1868-1939) "American physician and investigator in pediatric pathology...Her study brought her to the attention of the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research in New York City, where she collaborated on the first experimental work on polio in the United States." Encyclopędia Britannica Online

Encyclopędia Britannica Online
[Accessed 15 February 2000]
Copyright © 1994-1999 Encyclopędia Britannica, Inc.

Others who worked on behalf of Polio and Survivors:
(Sir) Frank Macfarlane Burnet, Australia (1899-1985)
(Dame) Annie Jean Macnamara, Australia (1899-1968)
John Rodman Paul, USA (Yale) (1893-1971)
Dorothy Horstmann, USA (Yale) (1911-2001)
Joseph Melnick (Yale, NIH, Baylor) (1914-2001)
Karl Landsteiner, Austria (1868-1943)
Thomas Francis, Jr. USA (University of Michigan) (1900-1969)
Ivar Wickman, Sweden (1872-1914)
Jakob Heine, Lauterbach, Germany (1800-1879)
Karl Oskar Medin, Sweden (1847-1927)
Michael Underwood, England (circa 1789)
Mikhail Chumakov, Russia
Guillaume Benjamin Amand Duchenne de Boulogne, French neurologist (1806-1875)
Ernst Adolf Gustav Gottfried von Strumpell, German neurologist (1853-1925)
Thomas M. Rivers (1888-1962)
Robert D. Defries, Canada (1889-1975)
John FitzGerald, Canada (1882-1940)
Hillary Kaprowski, Philadelphia, PA
Charles Armstrong "Hall of Fame"
Isabel Morgan "Hall of Fame"
Howard A. Howe "Hall of Fame"
Basil O' Connor (1892-1972) "Hall of Fame"

Warm Springs, GA, "Hall of Fame" has busts on 17 people who were Polio Pioneers

More Polio Information
Viruses: Polio

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© 2002 Jann