Maurice Hilleman | |
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| Born | Maurice Ralph Hilleman August 30, 1919 Miles City,Montana, U.S. |
| Died | April 11, 2005(2005-04-11) (aged 85) Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Citizenship | American |
| Alma mater | Montana State University University of Chicago |
| Occupations | Microbiologist,vaccinologist |
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| Children | 2 |
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Maurice Ralph Hilleman (August 30, 1919 – April 11, 2005) was a leading Americanmicrobiologist who specialized invaccinology and developed over 40vaccines, an unparalleled record of productivity.[2][3][4][5][6] According to one estimate, his vaccines save nearly eight million lives each year.[3] He has been described as one of the most influential vaccinologists ever.[2][6][7][8][9][10] He has been called the "father of modern vaccines".[11][12]Robert Gallo called Hilleman "the most successful vaccinologist in history".[13] He has been described by some researchers as having saved more lives than any other scientist in the 20th century.[14][15]
Of the 14 vaccines routinely recommended in Americanvaccine schedules, Hilleman and his team developed eight: those formeasles,mumps,hepatitis A,hepatitis B,chickenpox,Neisseria meningitidis,Streptococcus pneumoniae andHaemophilus influenzae bacteria.[4][7] During theinfluenza pandemic in Southern China, his vaccine is believed to have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.[7][15][16] He also played a key role in developing the vaccine for theHong Kong flu, as well as roles in the discovery ofantigenic shift anddrift, thecold-producingadenoviruses, the hepatitis viruses, and the potentiallycancer-causing virusSV40.[7][3][6][17][18][19]
Hilleman was born on a farm near thehigh plains town ofMiles City, Montana. His parents were Anna (Uelsmann) and Gustav Hillemann, and he was their eighth child.[20] Histwin sister died on the day the twins were born, and his mother died two days later. He was raised in the nearby household of his uncle, Bob Hilleman, and worked in his youth on the family farm. He credited much of his success to his work withchickens as a boy; since the 1930s, fertile chicken eggs had often been used to grow viruses for vaccines.[4]
His family belonged to theLutheran Church–Missouri Synod. When he was in the eighth grade, he discoveredCharles Darwin, and was caught readingOn the Origin of Species in church. Later in life, he rejected religion.[21] Due to lack of funds, he almost failed to attend college. His eldest brother interceded, and Hilleman graduated first in his class in 1941 fromMontana State University with family help and scholarships. He won a fellowship to theUniversity of Chicago and received his doctoral degree in microbiology in 1944.[22] His doctoral thesis was onchlamydia infections, which were then thought to be caused by a virus. Hilleman showed that these infections were actually caused by a species of bacterium,Chlamydia trachomatis, that growsonly inside of cells.[4]
After joining E.R. Squibb & Sons (nowBristol-Myers Squibb), Hilleman developed a vaccine againstJapanese B encephalitis, a disease that threatened American troops in thePacific Ocean theater of World War II. As chief of the Department of Respiratory Diseases atArmy Medical Center (now theWalter Reed Army Institute of Research) from 1948 to 1957, Hilleman discovered the genetic changes that occur when theinfluenza virusmutates, known asantigenicshift andAntigenic drift, which he theorized would mean that a yearly influenza vaccination would be necessary.[2][23]
In 1957, Hilleman joinedMerck & Co. (Rahway, New Jersey), as head of its newvirus andcell biology research department inWest Point, Pennsylvania. It was at Merck that Hilleman developed most of the forty experimental and licensed animal and human vaccines for which he is credited, working both at the laboratory bench as well as providing scientific leadership.
Hilleman served on many national and international advisory boards and committees, academic, governmental and private, including theNational Institutes of Health's Office of AIDS Research Program Evaluation and theAdvisory Committee on Immunization Practices of theNational Immunization Program.[citation needed]
Hilleman was among the first to recognize that a1957 outbreak of influenza inHong Kong could become a hugepandemic. Working on a hunch, after nine 14-hour days he and a colleague determined that it was a new strain of flu that could kill millions.[6][24] Forty million doses of vaccines were prepared and distributed.[25] Although 69,000 Americans died, thepandemic could have resulted in many more deaths in the United States. Hilleman was awarded theDistinguished Service Medal from the American military for his work. His vaccine is believed to have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.[7][16]
In 1968, during theHong Kong flu pandemic, Hilleman and his team also played a key role in developing a vaccine, and nine million doses became available in 4 months.[7][26]
Hilleman was one of the vaccine pioneers to warn about the possibility that simian viruses might contaminate vaccines.[27] The best-known of these viruses isSV40, a viral contaminant of some of the polio vaccines produced from 1955-1963. This included some produced for bothSalk's inactivated virus vaccine and the then relatively newAlbert Sabin's oral live attenuated vaccine[28].
In 1963, his daughter Jeryl Lynn came down with themumps. He cultivated material from her, and used it as the basis of amumps vaccine. TheJeryl Lynn strain of themumps vaccine is still used. The strain is used in the trivalent (measles, mumps and rubella)MMR vaccine that he also developed, the first approved vaccine to incorporate multiple live virus strains. Like many other vaccines and medications of that time period, the vaccine was tested in children with intellectual disabilities who lived in group homes; this was because, given the poor hygiene and cramped quarters of their accommodations, they were at much higher risk of infectious disease.[29]
He and his group invented[4] avaccine for hepatitis B by treating blood serum withpepsin,urea andformaldehyde. This was licensed in 1981, but withdrawn in 1986 in the United States and replaced by a vaccine that was produced in yeast. The latter vaccine is still in use. By 2003, 150 countries were using it and the incidence of the disease in the United States in young people had decreased by 95%. Hilleman considered his work on this vaccine to be his single greatest achievement. Liver transplant pioneer Thomas Starzl said "...controlling the hepatitis B virus scourge ranks as one of the most outstanding contributions to human health of the twentieth century...Maurice removed one of the most important obstacles to the field of organ transplantation".[30]
In his later life, Hilleman advised theWorld Health Organization. He retired as senior vice president of the Merck Research Labs in 1984 at its mandatory retirement age of 65. He then directed the newly created Merck Institute for Vaccinology where he worked for the next twenty years until his death in 2005.[31]
At the time of his death inPhiladelphia on April 11, 2005,[21] at the age of 85, Hilleman was Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics at theUniversity of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Hilleman was a forceful man yet at the same time, modest in his claims. None of his vaccines or discoveries are named after him. He ran his laboratory like a military unit, and he was the one in command. For a time, he kept a row of "shrunken heads" (actually fakes made by one of his children) in his office as trophies representing each of his fired employees. He used profanity and tirades freely to drive his arguments home, and once, famously, refused to attend a mandatory "charm school" course intended to make Merck middle managers more civil. His subordinates were fiercely loyal to him.[4]: 128–131
Hilleman was an elected member of theNational Academy of Sciences,[32] theInstitute of Medicine, theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences,[33] and theAmerican Philosophical Society.[34] In 1988,PresidentRonald Reagan presented him with theNational Medal of Science, the nation's highest scientific honor. He received thePrince Mahidol Award from theKing of Thailand for the advancement of public health, as well as a special lifetime achievement award from theWorld Health Organization, theMary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service and theSabin Gold Medal and Lifetime Achievement Awards. In 1975, Hilleman received the Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement.[35]
In March 2005, theUniversity of Pennsylvania School of Medicine's Department ofPediatrics and TheChildren's Hospital of Philadelphia, in collaboration with The Merck Company Foundation, announced the creation of The Maurice R. Hilleman Chair in Vaccinology.[citation needed]
Robert Gallo, co-discoverer ofHIV (the virus that causesAIDS), said in 2005: "If I had to name a person who has done more for the benefit of human health, with less recognition than anyone else, it would be Maurice Hilleman. Maurice should be recognized as the most successful vaccinologist in history."[8]
In 2005,Anthony Fauci, director of theUS National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that Hilleman's contributions were "the best kept secret among the lay public. If you look at the whole field of vaccinology, nobody was more influential."[2] In addition, Fauci said that "Hilleman is one of the true giants of science, medicine and public health in the 20th century. One can say without hyperbole that Maurice has changed the world."[7][36]
In 2007,Paul Offit published a biography of Hilleman, entitledVaccinated: One Man's Quest to Defeat the World's Deadliest Diseases.[4]
In 2007, Anthony S. Fauci wrote in a biographical memoir of Hilleman:[7][37]
Maurice was perhaps the single most influential public health figure of the twentieth century, if one considers the millions of lives saved and the countless people who were spared suffering because of his work. Over the course of his career, Maurice and his colleagues developed more than forty vaccines. Of the fourteen vaccines currently recommended in the United States, Maurice developed eight.
In 2008, Merck named itsMaurice R. Hilleman Center for Vaccine Manufacturing, inDurham, North Carolina, in memory of Hilleman.[38]
In 2009, the American Society of Microbiology (ASM) established the Maurice Hilleman/Merck Award in Vaccinology[39] to honor major contributions to pathogenesis, vaccine discovery, vaccine development, and/or control of vaccine-preventable diseases. The annual award was presented from 2008 to 2018. The first laureate wasStanley Plotkin. Subsequent awardees wereSamuel L. Katz (2010), Albert Z. Kapikian (2011),Myron Levine (2012), Emil Gotschlich and R. Gwin Follis-Chevron (2013),Dan M. Granoff (2014),Peter Palese (2016) and Stephen Whitehead (2018)
In 2016, a documentary film titledHilleman: A Perilous Quest to Save the World's Children, chronicling Hilleman's life and career, was released byMedical History Pictures, Inc.[40]
In 2016,Montana State University dedicated a series of scholarships in memory of its alumnus Hilleman, called the Hilleman Scholars Program,[41] for incoming students who "commit to work at their education beyond ordinary expectations and help future scholars that come after them".[42] The program has demonstrated success in supporting montana students from disadvantaged backgrounds, with the first cohort showing a 78% retention rate, higher than comparable students,[43] while fostering diversity with 36% of the 2022 cohort coming from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds.[44]
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