Poliovirus culture in non-neural tissue (Enders, Weller and Robbins)
Cultivo del poliovirus en tejido no nervioso (Enders, Weller y Robbins)
- Date
- 1949 · confidence high
- Place
- Children's Hospital Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
- Credited to
- John F. Enders, Thomas Weller and Frederick Robbins
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
Enders, Weller and Robbins managed to multiply the polio virus in human embryonic non-neural cell cultures, instead of monkeys or mice. The cell-culture method made vaccine production at industrial scale feasible.
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1954. Enders worked with human embryonic and monkey kidney tissue; HeLa (1951) was later used to mass-produce the virus.
What it led to
- Salk and Sabin vaccines and near-eradication of polio
- production of measles and rubella vaccines in cell culture
- mammalian cell culture as an industrial platform