biography
| name: |
Salk, Jonas (Edward)
|
pronunciation:
[sawlk]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1914–95)
|
| biography:
| Immunologist, born in New York City, New York, USA. He began his path-breaking studies on viruses and immunization by starting with the influenza virus while at the University of Michigan (1942–7). At the University of Pittsburgh (1947–63), he developed the first vaccination against poliomyelitis, a killed-virus vaccine, introduced to the public in 1953. By 1961, and after some resistance, Albert Sabin's simpler and stronger live-virus oral vaccine had supplanted Salk's injectable vaccine in the USA, and Salk's vaccine is now used only in a few countries around the world. He was the founder and director (1963) of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, CA and was on the board of directors of the Immune Response Corp, pursuing treatment for AIDS and other diseases such as multiple sclerosis. Among his writings are Man Unfolding (1972) and Anatomy of Reality: Merging of Intuition and Reason (1983). Widely honoured, he held the French Legion of Honour (1955) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1977). |
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