A Scientific Symposium Commemorating
the 50th Anniversary of the Development of
the Polio Vaccine
April 11 and 12, 2005
Alumni Hall, University of Pittsburgh
Polio Symposium
Speakers
- Matthias Gromeier, M.D.
- William Gruber, M.D.
- David L. Heymann, M.D.
- Robert A. Keegan
- Heidi J. Larson, Ph.D.
- Gary J. Nabel, M.D., Ph.D.
- Paul A. Offit, M.D.
- David M. Oshinsky, Ph.D.
- Tara O’Toole, M.D., M.P.H.
- Louis Piconi
- Charles R. Rinaldo Jr., Ph.D.
- John B. Robbins, M.D.
- Peter L. Salk, M.D.
- John Troan
- Julius S. Youngner, Sc.D.
Charles R. Rinaldo Jr., Ph.D.
Professor and Chair of Infectious Diseases
and Microbiology
University of Pittsburgh Graduate School
of Public Health
Professor of Pathology
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Dr. Rinaldo, whose own research is focused on AIDS and herpesvirus, has chronicled the role of William McDowall Hammon, M.D., his earliest predecessor as chair of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, in addressing the polio epidemic. In the early 1950s, Dr. Hammon, an eminent epidemiologist and microbiologist, tested the effectiveness of passive immunization by means of gamma globulin in large-scale, placebo-controlled field trials; the results provided the first evidence that antibodies to poliovirus could prevent the disease in humans. This work set the stage for Dr. Jonas Salk’s use of an inactivated virus vaccine to induce such antibodies for permanent protection against polio; it also initiated the methods that would later become the gold standard in clinical trials.