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Jonas Edward Salk (October 28 1914 – June 23, 1995) was an American physician and researcher, best known for the development of the first polio vaccine (the eponymous Salk vaccine). During his life he worked in New York, Michigan, Pittsburgh and California. In his later career, Salk devoted much energy toward the development of an AIDS vaccine.
LifeJonas E. Salk was born in New York City to a family of poor Russian-Jewish immigrants, Dora and Daniel B. Salk. He graduated from Townsend Harris High School and then went to the City College of New York with a B.Sc., and then received his medical degree from the College of Medicine at New York University in June 1939. While at college he met his future wife, Donna Lindsay Calfin, whom he married on June 9, 1939. They had three children: Peter, Darrell, and Jonathan. In 1968, they divorced, and in 1970 Salk married Françoise Gilot, the former mistress of Pablo Picasso. After graduating, Salk first worked as a staff physician at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. In 1947, he moved to Pittsburgh, where he led the Virus Research lab at the University of Pittsburgh. During the 1950s, he developed, tested, and refined the first successful polio vaccine. In 1955 he began immunizations at Pittsburgh's Arsenal Elementary School in the Lawrenceville neighborhood and made international news as the man who beat polio.
During his life, he received many awards and honors: The Lasker Award (1956), The Bruce Memorial Award (1958), The Jawaharlal Nehru Award (1975), Congressional Gold Medal of Honor and Presidential Medal of Freedom (1977). 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:
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 teach biochemistry. He recalls this experience in the previously mentioned interview:
While attending NY Medical College, he heard two lectures that would change his life forever. Salk reflected on the lectures in 1990:
In 1938, while still at the college, Salk began working with Dr. Thomas Francis, Jr. on an influenza vaccine. In 1941, Francis was appointed the head of the epidemiology department at the newly formed School of Public Health at the University of Michigan, and Salk, who in 1942 won a research fellowship, followed him. Together they worked to develop an influenza vaccine at the behest of the U.S. Army. Salk advanced to the position of assistant professor of epidemiology and continued his work on virology. 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 the poliomyelitis virus. The poliovirus initially attacks the nervous system and within a few hours of infection, paralysis can occur. The death rate of the disease is about 5-10%. Death usually occurs when the breathing muscles become paralyzed. Polio was sometimes hard to diagnose because of its flu-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 poliovirus, but kept it intact enough to trigger the necessary immune response. Salk's research caught the attention of Basil O'Connor, president of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (now known as the March of Dimes Birth Defects 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 the Polio Pioneers. This was one of the first double-blind placebo-controlled tests, which has since become standard: half of the treated received the vaccine, and half received a placebo, 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. On April 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 the near eradication of polio, a once widely-feared disease. Polio’s outbreak in 1916 left 6000 dead and 27,000 paralyzed. In 1952, 57,628 cases were recorded. After the vaccine became available, polio cases in the U.S. dropped by 85-90 percent in only two years. The last indigenous case of polio in the U.S. was reported in 1991. Dr. Salk's last years were spent searching for a vaccine against AIDS. According to the March of Dimes, Dr. Salk informed them that he had developed a vaccination for the disease that was still in the testing stages. He administered this to his son, Peter, as he had with the Polio vaccine. Merck & Co., Inc. later purchased the experimental antibody. Jonas Salk died on June 23, 1995 in La Jolla at the age of 80. Books
TriviaThere is a school in Bolingbrook, Illinois and Old Bridge, NJ named for him. ControversyOnly one member of the team that developed the Polio vaccine is still alive: Julius S. Youngner, a microbiologist who has spent 56 years working at The University of Pittsburgh. Youngner said he felt insulted and betrayed when Salk did not acknowledge his lab colleagues during his famous speech at the University of Michigan on April 12, 1955. That was the day the world learned the polio vaccine worked. Salk thanked everyone but his own team. [1] Renowned scientist Roger Revelle felt animosity toward Salk even years after the Salk Institute received a prime piece of San Diego real estate that Revelle felt should have gone to the fledgling University of California, San Diego campus. "Jonas decided that he wanted the best piece of land that we had," Revelle said in 1985. "Of course, it was much more important to get Salk here than to get the University here. He is a folk hero, even though he is... not very bright."[2] See alsoReferences
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