Growing Pathogens in Tissue Cultures: Fifty Years in Academic Tropical Medicine, Pediatric, and Virology

Weller, Thomas H., 2004, xi + 292pp., illus., cloth bound and jacketed   This is the autobiography of Thomas H. Weller, M.D., a research scientist who helped develop the technique of growing viruses in tissue culture, and who became a world leader in the study of tropical diseases. The development of tissue-culture techniques transformed the field of virology. It led to the identification of many new infectious agents—several of which were discovered by Weller—and led to the development of many viral vaccines, starting with the Salk and Sabin vaccines that have nearly eliminated polio. For this work, Weller shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 1954 along with Drs. John Enders and Frederick Robbins. The book relates the story of Weller’s life as a virologist. It describes in detail the development of tissue-culture techniques, starting with the landmark demonstration that polio virus could be grown in human tissue culture. The book relates the events surrounding the awa