title: Putting together the pieces of polio: how Dorothy Horstmann helped solve the puzzle.
abstract: Dr. Dorothy Horstmann, epidemiologist, virologist, clinician, and educator, was the first woman appointed as a professor at the Yale School of Medicine. Horstmann made significant contributions to the fields of public health and virology, her most notable being the demonstration that poliovirus reached the central nervous system via the bloodstream, upsetting conventional wisdom and paving the way for polio vaccines. In 1961, she was appointed a professor at Yale School of Medicine, and in 1969, she became the first woman at Yale to receive an endowed chair, which was named in honor of her mentor, Dr. John Rodman Paul. In this review, the major scientific contributions of Dr. Dorothy Horstmann will be highlighted from her more than 50-year tenure at Yale School of Medicine.
authors.affiliation: Yale School of Medicine, Boyer Center forMolecular Medicine, 295 Congress Avenue, New Haven, CT 06536, USA. heather.carleton@yale.edu
authors.forename: Heather A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Carleton
mesh_terms: D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D011051:Poliomyelitis / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology; D017955:Poliovirus; D023321:Poliovirus Vaccines
chemical_list: D023321:Poliovirus Vaccines