MAURICE HILLEMAN
Maurice Ralph Hilleman (b. August 30, 1919, Miles City, Montana - d. April 11,
2005, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American microbiologist who specialized
in vaccinology and developed over three dozen vaccines, more than any other
scientist. Of the fourteen vaccines routinely recommended in current vaccine
schedules, he developed eight: those for measles, mumps, hepatitis A, hepatitis
B, chickenpox, meningitis, pneumonia and Haemophilus influenzae bacteria. He
also played a role in the discovery of the cold-producing adenoviruses, the
hepatitis viruses and the cancer-causing virus SV40.
According to Dr. Adel F. Mahmoud, president of Merck Vaccines, Dr. Hilleman's
work has saved millions of lives, and protected millions more from disease.
Robert Gallo has described him as "the most successful vaccinologist in history".
Hilleman was born on a farm near the high plains town of Miles City, Montana.
His twin sister died when he was born, and his mother died the very next day. He
credits much of his success to his work with chickens as a boy. Chicken eggs are
used to develop vaccines based on weakened viruses.
When he was in the eighth grade, he discovered Charles Darwin, and was caught
reading The Origin of Species in church. Due to lack of money, he almost failed
to attend college. His eldest brother interceded, and Hilleman graduated from
Montana State University on a scholarship. He won a fellowship to the University
of Chicago and received his doctoral degree in microbiology in 1941.
After joining E.R. Squibb & Sons (now Bristol-Myers Squibb), he developed a
vaccine against Japanese B encephalitis, a disease that threatened American
troops in the Pacific Theater during World War II. As chief of the Department of
Respiratory Diseases, Army Medical Center (now the Walter Reed Army Institute of
Research) from 1948 to 1951, he discovered the genetic changes that occur when
the influenza virus mutates, known as shift and drift. That helped him to
recognize that an outbreak of flu in Hong Kong could become a huge pandemic.
Working on a hunch, he and a colleague found (after nine 14-hour days) that it
was a new strain of flu that could kill millions. Forty million doses of
vaccines were prepared and distributed. Although 69,000 Americans died, the
pandemic could have resulted in many more US deaths.
In 1957, Hilleman joined Merck & Co. (Whitehouse Station, New Jersey), as head
of its new virus and cell biology research department in West Point,
Pennsylvania. It was while with Merck that Hilleman developed most of the forty
experimental and licensed animal and human vaccines he is credited with, working
both at the laboratory bench as well as providing scientific leadership. In 1984,
he retired from Merck as senior vice president of the Merck Research Labs.
In 1963, his daughter Jeryl Lynn came down with the mumps. He cultivated
material from her, and used it as the basis of a mumps vaccine. The Jeryl-Lynn
strain of the mumps vaccine is still used today. The strain is currently used in
the trivalent MMR vaccine that he developed, the first vaccine ever approved
incorporating multiple live virus strains.
Hilleman served on numerous national and international advisory boards and
committees, academic, governmental and private, including the National
Institutes of Health's Office of AIDS Research Program Evaluation and the
Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the National Immunization
Program. In his later life, Hilleman was an adviser to the World Health
Organization.
At the time of his death on April 11, 2005, at the age of 85, Hilleman was
Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics at the School of Medicine, University of
Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia.
Maurice Ralph Hilleman (b. August 30, 1919, Miles City, Montana - d. April 11,
2005, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American microbiologist who specialized
in vaccinology and developed over three dozen vaccines, more than any other
scientist. Of the fourteen vaccines routinely recommended in current vaccine
schedules, he developed eight: those for measles, mumps, hepatitis A, hepatitis
B, chickenpox, meningitis, pneumonia and Haemophilus influenzae bacteria. He
also played a role in the discovery of the cold-producing adenoviruses, the
hepatitis viruses and the cancer-causing virus SV40.
According to Dr. Adel F. Mahmoud, president of Merck Vaccines, Dr. Hilleman's
work has saved millions of lives, and protected millions more from disease.
Robert Gallo has described him as "the most successful vaccinologist in history".
Hilleman was born on a farm near the high plains town of Miles City, Montana.
His twin sister died when he was born, and his mother died the very next day. He
credits much of his success to his work with chickens as a boy. Chicken eggs are
used to develop vaccines based on weakened viruses.
When he was in the eighth grade, he discovered Charles Darwin, and was caught
reading The Origin of Species in church. Due to lack of money, he almost failed
to attend college. His eldest brother interceded, and Hilleman graduated from
Montana State University on a scholarship. He won a fellowship to the University
of Chicago and received his doctoral degree in microbiology in 1941.
After joining E.R. Squibb & Sons (now Bristol-Myers Squibb), he developed a
vaccine against Japanese B encephalitis, a disease that threatened American
troops in the Pacific Theater during World War II. As chief of the Department of
Respiratory Diseases, Army Medical Center (now the Walter Reed Army Institute of
Research) from 1948 to 1951, he discovered the genetic changes that occur when
the influenza virus mutates, known as shift and drift. That helped him to
recognize that an outbreak of flu in Hong Kong could become a huge pandemic.
Working on a hunch, he and a colleague found (after nine 14-hour days) that it
was a new strain of flu that could kill millions. Forty million doses of
vaccines were prepared and distributed. Although 69,000 Americans died, the
pandemic could have resulted in many more US deaths.
In 1957, Hilleman joined Merck & Co. (Whitehouse Station, New Jersey), as head
of its new virus and cell biology research department in West Point,
Pennsylvania. It was while with Merck that Hilleman developed most of the forty
experimental and licensed animal and human vaccines he is credited with, working
both at the laboratory bench as well as providing scientific leadership. In 1984,
he retired from Merck as senior vice president of the Merck Research Labs.
In 1963, his daughter Jeryl Lynn came down with the mumps. He cultivated
material from her, and used it as the basis of a mumps vaccine. The Jeryl-Lynn
strain of the mumps vaccine is still used today. The strain is currently used in
the trivalent MMR vaccine that he developed, the first vaccine ever approved
incorporating multiple live virus strains.
Hilleman served on numerous national and international advisory boards and
committees, academic, governmental and private, including the National
Institutes of Health's Office of AIDS Research Program Evaluation and the
Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the National Immunization
Program. In his later life, Hilleman was an adviser to the World Health
Organization.
At the time of his death on April 11, 2005, at the age of 85, Hilleman was
Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics at the School of Medicine, University of
Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia.