Day at Night: Jonas Salk, Developer of the Polio Vaccine (1974)
1 2020-09-10T11:26:08-07:00 Alvaro Quezada 7828c851ddc470a00b45eb00bde06e8e2aefd52c 37889 2 plain 2020-10-06T14:30:40-07:00 Cari Kaurloto 3781164953cd6d9b5d46e62a61a9c84cdeafe0c1This page is referenced by:
-
1
media/Solkas.jpg
2020-09-09T11:59:35-07:00
Dr. Jonas Salk
19
In 1949, Dr. Salk shifted his focus to polio when he received a contract from the March of Dimes Foundation to identify different strains of polio virus.
plain
2020-10-06T14:51:08-07:00
1947 - 1950
In October of 1914 Jonas Salk, pioneer of the polio vaccine, was born to Polish-Jewish immigrants in New York City.
The first of his family to study at university, Jonas Salk was at first interested in law. However, his mother convinced him to switch from pre-law to pre-med by telling him he could never be a lawyer... because he could not win an argument against her. In 1942, after graduating college, Jonas Salk went on to work under Dr. Thomas Francis in the department of epidemiology at University of Michigan.
During Salk’s fellowship the two doctors worked on the creation of an influenza vaccine for the US military, using inactive or killed virus. This was not a widely accepted approach at the time (most vaccines were made using live virus), but it would soon become prolific through the work of Dr. Salk.
After he completed this fellowship with Dr. Francis, Dr. Salk moved to Pittsburgh and in 1947 became director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Virus Research Laboratory. In 1949, Dr. Salk shifted his focus to polio when he received a contract from the March of Dimes Foundation to identify different strains of polio virus. Using a tissue culture method of growing the virus, developed in 1949 by John Enders, Frederick Robbins, and Thomas Weller at Harvard University, and again disregarding convention by using the same inactive virus approach, Dr. Salk designed the polio vaccine. Some of the earliest volunteers to test the vaccine were Salk, his then wife, and their children, before proceeding to a national study of more than a million people.
In April of 1955, in a pivotal moment in medical history and in the life of Dr. Jonas Salk, the polio vaccine was declared safe and effective.
References
Dulbecco, R. Jonas Salk (1914-95). Nature 376, 216 (1995). https://doi-org.libproxy2.usc.edu/10.1038/376216a0
Tan, Siang Yong, MD/JD, and Nate Ponstein, MD. "Jonas Salk (1914-1995): A Vaccine Against Polio." Singapore Medical Journal vol 60, no.1 (2019): 9-10. doi: http:// doi.org/10.11622/smedj.2019002
-
1
media/First_Shipment_of_Polio_Vaccine_1955.jpg
2020-09-25T15:23:05-07:00
Legacy of Jonas Salk
9
plain
2020-10-06T14:40:15-07:00
2020
"Who owns the patent on this vaccine? Well, the people, I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?"
Jonas Salk, 1955
Polio was eliminated from North America by 1994. Dr. Salk is remembered as a civil hero, receiving many awards for his service to the public. However, he was not treated as such by the scientific world, and never received a Nobel prize or was granted membership to the US National Academy of Sciences.
In 1965, the success of the polio vaccine allowed Dr. Salk to establish the world renowned Salk Institute for biological studies in La Jolla, California.
Dr. Salk worked up until his death in 1995. His final project was an attempt to once again revolutionize the thinking around vaccines by working on what he called a therapeutic vaccine for AIDS-- a vaccine given after HIV infection in order to control or delay the onset of AIDS.
Dr. Salk is remembered as a kind and unselfish person who worked outside of the scientific conventions of his time despite the opinions of his peers and made invaluable contributions to public health.
Check out Jonas Salk's Google Doodle!