Enders, John Franklin


Enders, John Franklin,

1897–1985, American bacteriologist, b. West Hartford, Conn., grad. Yale, 1920, Ph.D. Harvard, 1930. He began teaching at Harvard in 1929, became associate professor in 1942, and joined the research staff of Children's Hospital, Boston. The 1954 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Enders, T. H. WellerWeller, Thomas Huckle,
1915–2008, American microbiologist and physician, b. Ann Arbor, Mich., B.A. Univ. of Michigan, 1936, M.D. Harvard, 1940. In 1936 he began teaching at Harvard, and as a specialist in tropical medicine he became professor in the school of public health
..... Click the link for more information.
, and F. C. RobbinsRobbins, Frederick Chapman,
1916–2003, American physician, b. Auburn, Ala., grad. Univ. of Missouri, 1938, M.D. Harvard, 1940. He served on the staff of Children's Hospital, Boston, and at Harvard, and from 1952 to 1966 was director of pediatrics at Cleveland Metropolitan
..... Click the link for more information.
 for their success in growing polio viruses in cultures of various tissues.

Enders, John Franklin

 

Born Feb. 10, 1897, in West Hartford, Conn. American virologist. Member of the National Academy of Sciences (1953), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Royal Society of London.

Enders graduated from Yale University in 1920. From 1929 to 1956 he taught at Harvard University. In 1946 he became chief of the laboratory of infectious diseases at Children’s Medical Center in Boston and head of the research department of infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital, also in Boston. He became a professor at Children’s Hospital (Harvard Medical School) in 1956.

Enders’ main works deal with bacteriology, immunology, and virology. He discovered a new type of polysaccharide in pneumococcus and showed the catalytic role of complement in the opsonization of bacteria by specific antibodies. In collaboration with T. Weller and F. Robbins, Enders proved that the poliomyelitis virus is not neurotropic and developed a method of culturing the virus, thus revolutionizing virological research. He also helped develop a measles vaccine.

Enders shared a Nobel Prize in 1954 with Robbins and Weller.