Max Theiler

Max Theiler
Theiler in 1951
Born	(1899-01-30)30 January 1899 Pretoria,South African Republic(present-daySouth Africa)
Died	11 August 1972(1972-08-11)(aged 73) New Haven, Connecticut,U.S.
Nationality	South Africa, American
Alma mater	University of Cape Town
Known for	Developing avaccineagainstyellow fever
Awards	Chalmers Medal(1939) Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award(1949) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine(1951)
Scientific career
Fields	Virology

Max Theiler(30 January 1899 – 11 August 1972) was aSouth African-Americanvirologistand physician. He was awarded theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicinein 1951 for developing avaccineagainstyellow feverin 1937, becoming the first African-born Nobel laureate.

Born inPretoria,Theiler was educated in South Africa through completion of his degree in medical school. He went to London for postgraduate work atSt Thomas's Hospital Medical Schooland at theLondon School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine,earning a 1922 diploma in tropical medicine and hygiene. That year, he moved to the United States to do research at theHarvard UniversitySchool of Tropical Medicine. He lived and worked in that nation the rest of his life. In 1930, he moved to theRockefeller Foundationin New York, becoming director of the Virus Laboratory.

Early life and education

Theiler was born in Pretoria, then the capital of theSouth African Republic(nowSouth Africa); his fatherArnold Theilerwas a veterinarybacteriologist.He attendedPretoria Boys High School,Rhodes University College,andUniversity of Cape TownMedical School, graduating in 1918. He left South Africa forLondonto study at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, King's College London, and at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In 1922, he was awarded a diploma in tropical medicine and hygiene; he became a licentiate of theRoyal College of Physiciansof London and a member of theRoyal College of Surgeons of England.

Career development

Theiler wanted to pursue a career in research, so in 1922, he took a position at the Harvard University School of Tropical Medicine inCambridge, Massachusetts.He spent several years investigatingamoebic dysenteryand trying to develop a vaccine forrat-bite fever.

After becoming assistant to Andrew Sellards, he started working on yellow fever. In 1926, they disprovedHideyo Noguchi's hypothesis that yellow fever was caused by the bacteriumLeptospira icteroides.In 1928, the year after the disease was identified conclusively as being caused by avirus,they showed that the African and South American viruses are immunologically identical. (This followed Adrian Stokes' inducing yellow fever inrhesus macaquesfrom India). In the course of this research, Theiler contracted yellow fever, but survived and developed immunity.

In 1930, Theiler moved to the Rockefeller Foundation in New York, where he later became director of the Virus Laboratory. He was professor of epidemiology and public health at theYale School of Medicineand theSchool of Public Healthfrom 1964 to 1967.

Work on yellow fever

After passing the yellow fever virus through laboratory mice, Theiler found that the weakened virus conferred immunity on rhesus macaques.The stage was set for Theiler to develop a vaccine against the disease. Theiler first devised a test for the efficacy of experimental vaccines. In his test, sera from vaccinated human subjects were injected into mice to see if they protected the mice against yellow fever virus. This "mouse protection test" was used with variations as a measure of immunity until after World War II.Subculturing the particularly virulent Asibi strain fromWest Africain chicken embryos, a technique pioneered byErnest Goodpasture,the Rockefeller team sought to obtain an attenuated strain of the virus that would not kill mice when injected into their brains. It took until 1937, and more than 100 subcultures in chicken embryos, for Theiler and his colleague Hugh Smith to obtain an attenuated strain, which they named "17D". Animal tests showed the attenuated 17D mutant was safe and immunizing. Theiler's team rapidly completed the development of a 17D vaccine, and the Rockefeller Foundation began human trials in South America. Between 1940 and 1947, the Rockefeller Foundation produced more than 28 million doses of the vaccine and finally ended yellow fever as a major disease.

For this work, Theiler received the 1951Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.Theiler also was awarded theRoyal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene'sChalmers Medalin 1939, Harvard University'sFlattery Medalin 1945, and theAmerican Public Health Association'sLasker Awardin 1949.

Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus

In 1937, Max Theiler discovered a filterable agent that was a known cause for paralysis in mice. He found the virus was not transmittable to rhesus macaques, and that only some mice developed symptoms.The virus is now referred to asTheiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus.The virus has been well characterized, and now serves as a standard model for studyingmultiple sclerosis.

Private life

He married Lillian Graham (1895–1977) in 1928, and they had one daughter.He died on 11 August 1972 inNew Haven, Connecticut.

Publications

Max Theiler contributed to three books:

• Viral and Rickettsial Infections of Man(1948)
• Yellow Fever(1951)
• The Arthropod-Borne Viruses of Vertebrates: An Account of The Rockefeller Foundation Virus Program, 1951–1970,Max Theiler andW. G. Downs.(1973) Yale University Press. New Haven and London.ISBN0-300-01508-9.

Theiler wrote numerous papers, published inThe American Journal of Tropical MedicineandAnnals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology.

Further reading

• Charles, C.W., Jr. "Theiler, Max".American National Biography Online,February 2000.
• "Theiler, Max".A Dictionary of Scientists.Oxford University Press, 1999.

External links

• Max Theileron Nobelprize.orgincluding the Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1951The Development of Vaccines against Yellow Fever