- Jonas Salk
Infobox_Scientist
name = Jonas Salk
image_width =
caption = Jonas Salk during a 1988 Centers for Disease Control visit
birth_date = birth date|1914|10|28|mf=y
birth_place =New York City, New York ,USA
death_date = death date|1995|6|23|mf=y (age 80)
death_place =La Jolla ,California ,USA
residence =USA
nationality = American
ethnicity=Jew ish
field =Physician andepidemiologist
work_institution =University of Pittsburgh
alma_mater =City College of New York New York University
doctoral_advisor =Thomas Francis, Jr.
doctoral_students =
known_for = First polio vaccine
prizes =Lasker Award (1956)Jonas Edward Salk (
October 28 1914 –June 23 ,1995 ) was an Americanbiologist andphysician best known for the research and development of a killed-viruspolio vaccine , theeponym ous "Salkvaccine ".During his life, Salk worked in
New York ,Michigan , Pittsburgh andCalifornia . In his later career, he devoted much energy toward the development of anAIDS vaccine .While being interviewed by
Edward R. Murrow on "See It Now " in 1955, Salk was asked: "Who owns the patent on this vaccine?" Surprised by the question's assumption of the requirement of a profit motive for his creation, he responded: "There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?" [YouTube|QHGKLbDt_2Q|YouTube - SiCKO DVD Extra Preview - Interview Gallery]Biography
Jonas Salk was born in
New York City to Russian-Jew ish immigrant parents, Dora and Daniel B. Salk. He had two brothers, Lee and Herman Salk. Herman became aveterinarian , and Lee became aclinical psychologist . Jonas graduated fromTownsend Harris High School and then went to theCity College of New York , where he earned a B.Sc. He received amedical degree from the School of Medicine atNew York University in June 1939.While in college he met his future wife, Donna Lindsay, whom he married on
June 9 ,1939 . They had three children: Peter, Darrell, and Jonathan. In 1968, they divorced, and in 1970 Salk marriedFrançoise Gilot , the former mistress ofPablo Picasso .As a child, Salk did not show any interest in medicine or science in general. He says in an interview with the
Academy of Achievement :Fact|date=December 2007:"As a child I was not interested in human anatomy. I was merely interested in things human, the human side of nature, if you like, and I continue to be interested in that. That's what motivates me. And in a way, it's the human dimension that has intrigued me."
His first desire was to become a
lawyer and only due to his mother's persuasion (which included her telling him he wouldn’t be good at it), he changed from a pre-law student to a pre-med student. During his first year in medical school, he was offered the chance to do research and teachbiochemistry . He recalls this experience in the previously mentioned interview::At one point at the end of my first year of medical school, I received an opportunity to spend a year in research and teaching in biochemistry, which I did. And at the end of that year, I was told I could, if I wished, switch and get a Ph.D. in biochemistry but my preference was to stay with medicine. And I believe that this is all linked to my original ambition, or desire, which was to be of some help to humankind, so to speak, in a larger sense than just on a one-to-one basis.Fact|date=December 2007
While attending the NYU School of Medicine, he heard two lectures that would change his life forever. Salk reflected on the lectures in 1990:
:In the first lecture, we were told that it was possible to immunize against
diphtheria andtetanus by the use of a chemically treated toxin [to kill it] ... In the very next lecture, we were told that in order to immunize against avirus disease it was necessary to go through the experience of infection. It was not possible to kill the virus... The light went on at that point. I said that those two statements can’t possibly both be true. One has to be false.Fact|date=December 2007In 1938, while still in college, Salk began working with Dr.
Thomas Francis, Jr. on an influenza vaccine. In 1941, Francis was appointed the head of theepidemiology department at the newly formed School of Public Health at theUniversity of Michigan , and Salk, who in 1942 won aresearch fellow ship, followed him. Together they worked to develop an influenza vaccine at the behest of theUnited States Army . Salk advanced to the position of assistant professor ofepidemiology and continued his work onvirology .After medical school, Salk first worked as a staff physician at the
Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. Later, he worked for Dr. Francis's virus lab at theUniversity of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In 1947, he moved to Pittsburgh, where he led theVirus Research lab at theUniversity of Pittsburgh .During the 1950s, Salk developed, tested and refined the first successful killed-virus
polio vaccine , using inactive (dead) poliovirus cells that were injected into the body. In 1955 he began immunizations at Pittsburgh's Arsenal Elementary School in the Lawrenceville neighborhood. (Hilary Koprowski had already in 1950 initiated the use of an oral attenuated-live-virus polio vaccine, which would prove to be the future of polio immunization.)In 1965, Salk struck out on his own, leaving the
University of Pittsburgh and establishing the Salk Institute for Biological Studies inLa Jolla, California , where the major focus of study wasmolecular biology andgenetics . The first faculty included many distinguished members such asJacob Bronowski andFrancis Crick . Salk directed the institute until his retirement in 1985.During Salk's last years, he co-founded The Immune Response Corporation with
Kevin Kimberlin to search for a vaccine againstAIDS , and patented a p24- vaccine as "Remune".Salk died on
June 23 ,1995 inLa Jolla, CA , at the age of 80 due to heart failure.Polio vaccine
In 1947, Salk received a position at the
University of Pittsburgh , as the head of the Virus Research lab. Though he continued his research on improving the influenza vaccine, he set his sights on thepoliomyelitis virus. Although about 99% of cases of polio are asymptomatic, thepolio virus can attack thenervous system and within a few hours of infection,paralysis can occur. Thedeath rate for paralytic cases is about 5-10%. Death usually occurs when the breathing muscles become paralyzed. Polio was sometimes hard to diagnose because of itsflu -like symptoms, which include stiff neck, fever, and headache.At that time, it was believed that immunity can come only after the body has survived at least a mild infection by live virus. In contrast, Salk observed that it is possible to acquire immunity through contact with inactivated (killed) virus. Using
formaldehyde , Salk killed the polio virus, but kept it intact enough to trigger the necessary immune response. Salk's research caught the attention ofBasil O'Connor , president of theNational Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (now known as theMarch of Dimes Foundation). The organization decided to fund Salk's efforts to develop a killed virus vaccine.The vaccine was first tested in monkeys, and then in patients at the
D.T. Watson Home for Crippled Children . After successful tests, in 1952, Salk tested his vaccine on volunteering parties, including himself, the laboratory staff, his wife, and his children. In 1954, national testing began on two million children, ages six to nine, who became known as thePolio Pioneers . This was one of the firstdouble-blind placebo-controlled tests, which has since become standard: half of the treated received the vaccine, and half received aplacebo , where neither the individuals nor the researchers know who belongs to the control group and the experimental group. One-third of the children, who lived in areas where vaccine was not available, were observed in order to evaluate the background level of polio in this age group. OnApril 12 ,1955 , the results were announced: the vaccine was safe and effective. The patient would develop immunity to the live disease due to the body's earlier reaction to the killed virus.Salk's vaccine was instrumental in beginning the
eradication of polio , a once widely-feared disease. Polio epidemics in 1916 left about 6000 dead and 27,000 paralyzed in the United States. In 1952, 57,628 cases were recorded in the U.S. After the vaccine became available, polio cases in the U.S. dropped by 85-90 percent in only two years. Unfortunately, some drug companies manufactured contaminated polio vaccine containing live virus, and this error cost dozens of lives. However, the live-virus oral vaccine developed byAlbert Sabin became the preferred alternative after a sometimes intense clash between the two scientists and their adherents. The Salk vaccine, which is injected, proved to be effective in sharply reducing the number of polio cases in the United States. A disadvantage to Salk's vaccine was that booster shots had to be taken periodically. The Sabin vaccine had the advantage of easier delivery and became accepted in the United States after the testing abroad. It was licensed in 1961 and eventually became the vaccine of choice in most parts of the world. The last indigenous case of polio in the U.S. was reported in 1991. Partly because of that fact, only inactivated, Salk-type polio vaccines have been recommended for use in the United States since 2000. [ [http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/polio/default.htm CDC figures] ]The Salk vaccine was based upon plasmid
DNA fact|date=August 2008. Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg and Jonas Salk were colleagues and friends. However, Lederberg had expressed reservations concerning polio and the Salk vaccine.Esther Lederberg was quite well aware that from an epidemiological viewpoint it was possible that Salk's vaccine was not as effective as he thought. Specifically, the incidence of polio was noted to occur in waves. Thus, Lederberg wondered whether the marked reduction in polio cases was due to Salk's vaccine or the end of a wave of infection (and Salk's vaccine having little effect). Lederberg felt that Salk could have done more to elucidate this possible ambiguity had he kept better records. [http://www.estherlederberg.com/Anedcotes.html]Honors
*In 1956, he was awarded the
Lasker Award ; in 1958, The Bruce Memorial Award; in 1975, TheJawaharlal Nehru Award and theCongressional Gold Medal *In 1977, he was awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom from PresidentJimmy Carter , with the following statement accompanying the medal::"Because of Doctor Jonas E. Salk, our country is free from the cruel epidemics of poliomyelitis that once struck almost yearly. Because of his tireless work, untold hundreds of thousands who might have been crippled are sound in body today. These are Doctor Salk's true honors, and there is no way to add to them. This Medal of Freedom can only express our gratitude, and our deepest thanks." [cite web |url= http://www.medaloffreedom.com/JonasSalk.htm |title= Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Dr. Jonas E. Salk | date=
July 4 ,1977 ]* In the late 1950s Salk was elected to the
Polio Hall of Fame , which was dedicated inWarm Springs, Georgia onJanuary 2 ,1958
*On December 5, 2007, California GovernorArnold Schwarzenegger and First LadyMaria Shriver inducted Salk into theCalifornia Hall of Fame , located atThe California Museum for History, Women and the Arts . [ [http://www.californiamuseum.org/Exhibits/Hall-of-Fame/inductees.html Salk inducted into California Hall of Fame] , California Museum, Accessed 2007]*There are schools in
Tulsa, Oklahoma ,Bolingbrook, Illinois ,Levittown, New York ,Old Bridge, New Jersey &Sacramento, California named for him.Further reading
* Man Unfolding (1972)
* Survival of the Wisest (1973)
* World Population and Human Values: A New Reality (1981)
* Anatomy of Reality (1983)See also
*Polio vaccine
*Hilary Koprowski
*March of Dimes
*Ontario March of Dimes
*University of Pittsburgh
*University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
*Salk Institute for Biological Studies References
External links
* [http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/salk.html The Time 100 The Most Important People of the Century]
* [http://www.jonas-salk.org/ Jonas Salk Trust]
* [http://www.salk.edu/jonassalk/ Salk Institute for Biological Studies]
* [http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/dl/salk/salkdocuments.html Documents regarding Jonas Salk and the Salk Polio Vaccine, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library]
* [http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?collection=open_mind&collectionid=openmind_ep1234 1985 Open Mind interview with Richard D. Heffer: "Man Evolving..."]
* [http://www.polio.pitt.edu/ University of Pittsburgh Jonas Salk site]
* [http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05094/482468.stm Pittsburgh Post-Gazette feature on Jonas Salk and the Polio cure 50 years later]
* [http://www.salkschool.org The Salk School of Science (New York, NY)]
* [http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN%2F5256767 Patent] US Patent 5,256,767 : Vaccine against HIVPersondata
NAME= Salk, Jonas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Physician andepidemiologist
DATE OF BIRTH=October 28 ,1914
PLACE OF BIRTH=New York City, New York ,USA
DATE OF DEATH=June 23 ,1995
PLACE OF DEATH=La Jolla ,California ,USA
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