Thomas H. Weller biography
Date of birth : 1915-06-15
Date of death : 2008-08-23
Birthplace : Ann Arbor, Michigan,U.S.
Nationality : American
Category : Science and Technology
Last modified : 2011-12-15
Credited as : virologist, Nobel Prize in Physiology, known for cultivation of the polio vaccine
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Weller was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize for Medicine, in tandem with John F. Enders and Frederick C. Robbins, for cultivation of the polio vaccine in their research lab at Children's Hospital in Boston. Weller was also involved in projects that successfully cultivated the rubella (German measles) virus, and isolated the viruses responsible for chicken pox and herpes.
Weller also contributed to treating schistosomiasis, and Coxsackie viruses. He was also the first to isolate the virus responsible for varicella.
Author of books:
-Growing Pathogens in Tissue Cultures: Fifty Years in Academic Tropical, Medicine, Pediatrics, and Virology (2004)