The Power of Plagues by Irwin W. Sherman

Author:Irwin W. Sherman [Sherman, Irwin W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781683673088
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2020-01-25T00:00:00+00:00

Jonas Salk

Salk (1914-1995) was born in New York City. His parents were Russian Jewish immigrants who, although they themselves lacked formal education, were determined to see their children succeed and encouraged them to study hard. When he was 13, Salk entered Townshend Harris High School, a public school for intellectually gifted students that was “a launching pad for the talented sons of immigrant parents who lacked the money—and pedigree—to attend a top private school.” In high school “he was known as a perfectionist … who read everything he could lay his hands on,” according to one of his fellow students. Students had to cram a 4-year curriculum into just 3 years. As a result, most dropped out or flunked out, despite the school’s motto, “Study, study, study.” Of the students who graduated, however, most would have the grades to enroll in the City College of New York (CCNY), noted for being a highly competitive college. At age 15 Salk entered CCNY intending to study law, but at his mother’s urging he put aside aspirations of becoming a lawyer and instead concentrated on classes necessary for admission to medical school. Salk managed to squeeze through the quota limiting Jewish admissions and entered NYU Medical School in 1934. According to Salk, “My intention was to go to medical school, and then become a medical scientist. I did not intend to practice medicine, although in medical school, and in my internship, I did all the things that were necessary to qualify me in that regard.” During medical school Salk was invited to spend a year researching influenza. After completing medical school and his internship, Salk returned to the study of influenza viruses. He then joined his mentor, Dr. Thomas Francis, as a research fellow at the University of Michigan. There, at the behest of the U.S. Army, he worked to develop an influenza vaccine. By 1947, Salk decided to find an institution where he could direct his own laboratory. After three institutions turned him down, he received an offer from the University of Pittsburgh, with a promise that he would run his own lab. He accepted, and in the fall of that year he left Michigan and relocated to Pennsylvania. The promise, though, was not quite what he expected. After Salk arrived at Pittsburgh, “he discovered that he had been relegated to cramped, unequipped quarters in the basement of the old Municipal Hospital.” Salk, a driven, obstinate, and self-assured individual, began securing grants from the Mellon family and over time was able to build a working virology laboratory, where he continued his research on flu vaccines. It was in Pittsburgh that Salk began to put together the techniques that would lead to his polio vaccine. Salk used the Enders group’s technique to grow poliovirus in monkey kidney cells. Then he purified the virus and inactivated it with formaldehyde but kept it intact enough to trigger the necessary immune response. Salk’s research caught the attention of Basil O’Connor, president of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (now known as the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation) (Fig.

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