Max Theiler

Max Theiler (January 30, 1899 - August 11, 1972) was a South African virologist, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1951 for developing a vaccine for yellow fever.

Related Topics:
January 30 - 1899 - August 11 - 1972 - South Africa - Virologist - Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine - 1951 - Yellow fever

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Theiler was born in Pretoria, South Africa, his father Arnold Theiler was a veterinary bacteriologist. He attended Pretoria Boys High School, Rhodes University College, and then University of Cape Town Medical School graduating in 1918. He left South Africa to study at St. Thomas's Hospital Medical School and the School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, in London. In 1922 he was awarded a diploma in tropical medicine and hygiene and became a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of London and a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, he never received an academic degree of any kind.

Related Topics:
Pretoria - Pretoria Boys High School - University of Cape Town - 1918 - London - 1922 - Royal College of Physicians - Royal College of Surgeons

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Theiler wanted to pursue a career in research, so in 1922 he took a position at the Harvard University School of Tropical Medicine. He spent several years investigating amoebic dysentery and trying to develop a vaccine from rat-bite fever. He became assistant to Andrew Sellards and started working on yellow fever. In 1926 they disproved Hideyo Noguchi that yellow fever was caused by a bacterium, and in 1928 the year after the disease was identified conclusively as a virus, they showed that the African and South American viruses are immunologically identical.

Related Topics:
Harvard University - Dysentery - Rat-bite fever - Andrew Sellards - 1926 - Hideyo Noguchi - 1928 - Virus

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Theiler was awarded the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene's Chalmers Medal in 1939, Harvard University's Flattery Medal in 1945, and the American Public Health Association's Lasker Award in 1949. He died, having never become a U.S. citizen, in New Haven, Connecticut.

Related Topics:
Flattery Medal - 1945 - Lasker Award - 1949 - New Haven, Connecticut

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