Remembering Polio: The History and Future of Vaccine Development

A Scientific Symposium Commemorating
the 50th Anniversary of the Development of
the Polio Vaccine

April 11 and 12, 2005
Alumni Hall, University of Pittsburgh

Julius S. Youngner, Sc.D.

Julius S. Youngner, Sc.D.

Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Dr. Youngner is rightly known as a pioneer in the science of virology. He is the sole surviving scientist from the core research team that created the Salk polio vaccine, a medical milestone that continues to reverberate to the present day as global polio eradication efforts progress. The remainder of his career has been just as filled with scientific originality and key advances in the field.

While in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II, Dr. Youngner was assigned to the ultra-secret Manhattan Project. From 1947 to 1949, he was a scientist officer in the Public Health Service and worked at the National Cancer Institute. In 1949, he joined Dr. Jonas Salk at the University of Pittsburgh to fight the threatening scourge of paralytic poliomyelitis.

Dr. Youngner’s efforts were responsible for establishing techniques to produce poliovirus on a large scale, and he helped develop the process for inactivating the infectivity of the virus without destroying its activity as a vaccine. He also devised methodology for safety testing of vaccine batches, including those used in the first field trial. A simple color test for anti-polio antibodies that was used to determine the efficacy of immunization in human subjects was also the fruit of Dr. Youngner's efforts.

A native of New York City, Dr. Youngner received a bachelor’s degree from New York University in 1939, followed by master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan. He was named distinguished service professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1989, achieving emeritus status in 1991. From 1966 to 1985, he served as professor and chair in the school’s Department of Microbiology. From 1985 to 1989, he was professor and chair of the Department of Microbiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Dr. Youngner chairs the ethics committee for the American Society of Microbiology and is a member of the American Society for Virology, which he served as president from 1986 to 1987. He is a member of the American Academy of Microbiology, the American Association of Immunologists, and an elected honorary member of the International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research. He is a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Youngner has served on the editorial boards of numerous professional journals, holds 10 patents and has authored nearly 200 publications. He and his wife, the former Rina Balter, have two children and three grandchildren.