Yellow fever and Max Theiler: the only Nobel Prize for a virus vaccine.
In 1951, Max Theiler of the Rockefeller Foundation received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of an effective vaccine against yellow fever--a discovery first reported in the JEM 70 years ago. This was the first, and so far the only, Nobel Prize given for the development of a virus vaccine. Recently released Nobel archives now reveal how the advances in the yellow fever vaccine field were evaluated more than 50 years ago, and how this led to a prize for Max Theiler.
Center for the History of Science, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, SE-104 05 Stockholm, Sweden. erling.norrby@kva.se
Erling
E
Norrby
D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D009613:Nobel Prize; D015004:Yellow Fever / Q000266:history / Q000276:immunology*; D022341:Yellow Fever Vaccine / Q000266:history / Q000627:therapeutic use*
D022341:Yellow Fever Vaccine