KOPROWSKI, HILARY 1916-

EMINENT VIROLOGIST; DEVELOPER OF THE FIRST POLIO VACCINE

Useful Failure

Hilary Koprowski developed the first polio vaccine tried on humans, but it failed, and his work in the field was overshadowed by the successes of Drs. Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin. Even so, Dr. Koprowski's polio research revealed much about the structure and operation of the virus. He later distinguished himself for his research in cell biology as director of the Wistar Institute.

Yellow Fever

Koprowski emigrated from Poland in 1939. He took a position on the staff of the Yellow Fever Research Service of the Rockefeller Institute in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he worked on the development of vaccines against a parasitic disease related to yellow fever. In Brazil he gained much experience with infectious viral disease patterns and with vaccination using attenuated, or weakened, strains of virus.

Lederle Labs

Beginning in 1946 Koprowski worked on the staff at Lederle Laboratories in Pearl River, New York, where he supervised experiments dealing with two viruses of the central nervous system, polio and rabies. After President Franklin D. Roosevelt founded the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, Lederle and Koprowski assumed a leading role in polio research.

Polio Vacccine

Koprowski began human experiments with his attenuated vaccine in 1950, two years before Salk and Sabin, but mass trials in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1956 were unsuccessful, resulting in several deaths and the end of Koprowski's association with Lederle. He resumed his research at the University of Pennsylvania in 1957 and made plans for mass vaccinations in the Congo, but a civil war frustrated his plans. The Sabin vaccine proved itself Before Koprowski could regain his momentum.