John Franklin Enders

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Bronze bust of Enders in the Polio Hall of Fame

John Franklin Enders (born February 10, 1897 in West Hartford , Connecticut , USA , † September 8, 1985 in Waterford , Connecticut, USA) was an American bacteriologist, virologist and immunologist. In 1954 he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine . Enders has been called the "father of modern vaccination" and his discoveries are estimated to have saved over 114 million lives worldwide.

Life

Enders attended Noah Webster School at Hartford and St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire. After graduating from high school in 1915, he went to Yale University , but suspended his studies in 1918 to become an ensign pilot in the US Air Force . After World War I he returned to Yale and received an BA (honorary) in 1919 and finally the normal title in 1920. He then went on to work as a real estate agent in Hartford, an occupation that did not satisfy him. He enrolled at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts and studied English literature and Germanic and Celtic languages ​​for four years with the intention of becoming an English teacher. But this career did not satisfy him either. He had long been interested in biology and through medical students among his friends at Harvard, including the bacteriologist Hans Zinsser , this interest was rekindled, with the result that he started studying bacteriology and immunology. He completed it in 1930 with a dissertation on a bacteriological topic. From 1930 to 1946 he was a faculty member at Harvard University.

From 1946 to 1972, Enders worked as head of research at an infectious disease research laboratory at the Boston Children's Hospital. He also served as president of the American Association of Immunologists in 1952/1953 . He continued teaching at the university with a maximum of two lectures per year. He became a full professor in 1956 and was given the title of Distinguished Professor in 1962 , which he held until his retirement in 1967.

Enders married Sarah Frances Bennett of Brookline, Massachusetts in 1927, who died in 1943. In 1951 he married Carolyn B. Keane of Newton Center, Massachusetts for the second time. He had a son John Ostrom Enders II and a daughter Sarah Enders, and a stepson William Edmund Keane. John Franklin Enders died on September 8, 1985 in Waterford, Connecticut.

Work as a virologist and bacteriologist

At Harvard Medical School , he and his colleagues developed methods for growing viruses in disinfected tissue cultures. Live test animals were replaced in this way. The changes in the tissue could be viewed under the microscope. That was a milestone in virus research.

In 1954, he, Frederick Chapman Robbins and Thomas Huckle Weller jointly received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of the ability of the poliovirus - the causative agent of polio - to grow in cultures of different tissue types .

Enders was involved in the early development of a measles vaccine (with Samuel L. Katz , developed to maturity by Maurice Hilleman ) and research into adenoviruses , which he named.

Honors and Membership

Enders received honorary doctorates from thirteen universities.

literature

  • Thomas H. Weller and Frederick C. Robb: John Franklin Enders (1897 - 1985) , A Biographical Memoir, Washington (DC), 1991 (publication of the National Academy of Sciences also online as PDF )
  • Katz, SL (2009). "John F. Enders and measles virus vaccine - a reminiscence". Curr. Top. Microbiol. Immunol. (Germany) 329: 3-11. ISSN  0070-217X . PMID 19198559 .
  • Renate Wagner: Enders, John Franklin. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 353.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Billy Woodward: John Enders-Over 114 Million Lives Saved. Scientists Greater Than Einstein. Fresno: Quill Driver Books, 2009.
  2. ↑ Enders, Bell, Dingle et al. a. Science, Vol. 124, 1956, p. 119
  3. ^ Members of the American Academy. Listed by election year, 1900-1949 ( PDF ). Retrieved October 11, 2015
  4. ^ Member History: John Franklin Enders. American Philosophical Society, accessed August 1, 2018 .
  5. ^ Member entry by John Franklin Enders at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on October 12, 2012.
  6. ↑ Weller / Robb p. 62

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Enders, John Franklin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American virologist
DATE OF BIRTH February 10, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH West Hartford , Connecticut , USA
DATE OF DEATH September 8, 1985
Place of death Waterford , Connecticut, USA