( Maurice Ralph Hilleman, an American Microbiologist has developed over 40 vaccines, an unparalleled record of productivity. Despite Hilleman’s many breakthroughs in immunology and vaccinology, he has never been a household name.)
Maurice Hilleman worked in the vaccine division of Merck. He had two daughters Jeryl and Kirsten.
One summer night in 1963, he was awakened by his little daughter Jeryl Lynn, who was sick with a sore throat and swollen glands. He could diagnose it to be Mumps. In that late hours of night, he immediately ran to his laboratory to get his equipments. He collected a sample from her throat that night itself and seeded the virus into a culture plate.
Jeryl Lynn recovered from the mumps virus, but that mumps virus could never escape the Lab of Maurice Hilleman. It became the first Mumps Vaccine of the world.
Hilleman passed the virus first through egg yolk and then through other cell line to attenuate the virus and shepherded it through testing in production of the first mumps vaccine.
It took him 4 years.
After preparation of the vaccine prototype, he injected his creation into his other daughter, Kirsten( see pic). She became the first participant in his early clinical trials. This requires enormous confidence in your capability and fundamentals.
The world got its first Mumps vaccine. It took him 4 years. that was the shortest time span for a vaccine to be developed from lab to shoulder of a child. it was a record till it was broken by the Covid Vaccine. Normally vaccine preparation includes virus isolation, computer model, animal model and three stage clinical trial which usually took decades.
Merck Vaccine Division his employer currently produces seven vaccines, all invented by Maurice Hilleman.
“This guy, whatever he touched, he developed a vaccine out of it,” adds Adel Mahmoud, president of the Merck Vaccine Division.
Hilleman has produced a mind-boggling number of fundamental breakthroughs.
He is the inventor of more than 40 vaccines, including those that prevent measles, mumps, rubella, Haemophilus influenzae type b, hepatitis A, hepatitis B and chickenpox.
According to one estimate, his vaccines save nearly 8 million lives a year.
Hilleman also discovered SV40 and the adenoviruses, was the first to purify interferon, and the first to demonstrate that its expression is induced by double-stranded RNA—discoveries that launched several branches of molecular biology and immunology and jump-started the quest for antiviral medications.
Maurice Hilleman was responsible for developing more than 40 vaccines, including measles, mumps, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, meningitis, pneumonia, Haemophilus influenzae bacteria, and rubella. His vaccines have been credited with saving millions of lives and with eradicating common childhood diseases. The measles vaccine alone has prevented approximately one million deaths. Among other accomplishments, he succeeded in characterising and isolating many viruses, including the hepatitis A vaccine in culture.
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