Maurice Hilleman

Maurice Hilleman was an American microbiologist whose work led to more than 40 vaccines, including vaccines against measles, mumps, and hepatitis B.

Mumps vaccine: A vaccine that prevents mumps, commonly given as part of the MMR vaccine. Hilleman developed the first effective mumps vaccine using a virus isolated from his daughter.
Live attenuated vaccine: A vaccine made from a weakened pathogen that can replicate without usually causing disease. Several vaccines Hilleman developed used weakened viruses to induce durable immunity.
Merck & Co.: An American pharmaceutical company that develops and manufactures medicines and vaccines. Hilleman led vaccine research at Merck for decades, where many of his vaccines were developed.
University of Chicago: A private research university in Chicago, Illinois, founded in 1890. Hilleman earned his doctorate there before beginning his career in microbiology.
Herd immunity: Indirect protection from infection that arises when enough people in a population are immune. Widespread use of Hilleman’s vaccines helped reduce transmission of several infectious diseases.
Measles vaccine: A vaccine that protects against measles, usually administered in the MMR or MMRV combination. Hilleman helped develop the widely used live attenuated measles vaccine.
Virus culture: The propagation of viruses in living cells or tissues for research and vaccine production. Cell culture enabled Hilleman’s teams to grow and adapt viruses for vaccine development.
John Enders: An American virologist who helped demonstrate that poliovirus could grow in non-neural tissue cultures. Enders’s cell-culture advances helped make large-scale measles vaccine development possible.
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research: A United States Army biomedical research center in Silver Spring, Maryland. Hilleman led respiratory disease research there and identified the influenza virus behind the 1957 pandemic.
Vaccine hesitancy: Delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccination despite the availability of vaccination services. The public-health gains from Hilleman’s vaccines are challenged when people decline immunization.

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MeaslesRelated: His work turned the isolated virus into a practical vaccine.