Editing Max Theiler

{{short description|South African-American virologist and physician}}
{{more citations needed|date=July 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Use South African English|date=August 2012}}
{{Infobox scientist
| image       = Max Theiler nobel.jpg
| name        = Max Theiler
| caption     = Theiler in 1951
| birth_date  = {{birth date|df=yes|1899|1|30}}
| birth_place = [[Pretoria]], [[South African Republic]] (present-day [[South Africa]])
| death_date  = {{death date and age|df=yes|1972|8|11|1899|1|30}}
| death_place = [[New Haven, Connecticut]], U.S.
| nationality = South Africa, American
| field       = [[Virology]]
| known_for   = Developing a [[vaccine]] against [[yellow fever]]
| prizes      = [[Chalmers Medal]] {{small|(1939)}}<br>[[Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award]] <small>(1949)</small><br>[[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] <small>(1951)</small>
| alma_mater = [[University of Cape Town]]
}}
'''Max Theiler''' (30 January 1899 – 11 August 1972) was a [[South African American|South African-American]] [[virology|virologist]] and physician. He was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] in 1951 for developing a [[vaccine]] against [[yellow fever]] in 1937, becoming the first African-born Nobel laureate.<ref>{{cite web
 | url = http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1951/index.html
 | title = The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1951
 | access-date = 2017-11-30
 | publisher = Nobel Foundation
}}</ref>

Born in [[Pretoria]], Theiler was educated in South Africa through completion of his degree in medical school. He went to London for postgraduate work at [[St Thomas's Hospital Medical School]] and at the [[London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine]], earning a 1922 diploma in tropical medicine and hygiene. That year, he moved to the United States to do research at the [[Harvard University]] School of Tropical Medicine. He lived and worked in that nation the rest of his life. In 1930, he moved to the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] in New York, becoming director of the Virus Laboratory.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1951/theiler/biographical/|title=Max Theiler – Biographical|website=NobelPrize.org|language=en-US|access-date=2019-08-12}}</ref>

== Early life and education ==
Theiler was born in Pretoria,  the capital of the [[South African Republic]] (now [[South Africa]]); his father [[Arnold Theiler]] was a veterinary [[bacteriologist]]. He attended [[Pretoria Boys High School]], [[Rhodes University|Rhodes University College]], and [[University of Cape Town]] Medical School, graduating in 1918. He left South Africa for [[London]] to study at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, King's College London, and at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In 1922, he was awarded a diploma in tropical medicine and hygiene; he became a licentiate of the [[Royal College of Physicians]] of London and a member of the [[Royal College of Surgeons of England]].<ref name=":0"/>

==Career development==
Theiler wanted to pursue a career in research, so in 1922, he took a position at the Harvard University School of Tropical Medicine in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]]. He spent several years investigating [[Amoebiasis|amoebic dysentery]] and trying to develop a vaccine for [[rat-bite fever]].

After becoming assistant to Andrew Sellards, he started working on yellow fever. In 1926, they disproved [[Hideyo Noguchi]]'s hypothesis that yellow fever was caused by the bacterium ''Leptospira icteroides.'' In 1928, the year after the disease was identified conclusively as being caused by a [[virus]], they showed that the African and South American viruses are immunologically identical. (This followed Adrian Stokes' inducing yellow fever in [[rhesus macaque]]s from India). In the course of this research, Theiler contracted yellow fever, but survived and developed immunity.

In 1930, Theiler moved to the Rockefeller Foundation in New York, where he later became director of the Virus Laboratory. He was professor of epidemiology and public health at the [[Yale School of Medicine]] and the [[Yale School of Public Health|School of Public Health]] from 1964 to 1967.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Tan|first=Sy|last2=Pettigrew|first2=K|date=2017|title=Max Theiler (1899–1972): Creator of the yellow fever vaccine|journal=Singapore Medical Journal|volume=58|issue=4|pages=223–224|doi=10.11622/smedj.2017029|pmid=28429035|pmc=5392609}}</ref>

== Work on yellow fever ==
After passing the yellow fever virus through laboratory mice, Theiler found that the weakened virus conferred immunity on rhesus macaques.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Frierson|first=J. Gordon|date=June 2010|title=The Yellow Fever Vaccine: A History|journal=The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine|volume=83|issue=2|pages=77–85|issn=0044-0086|pmc=2892770|pmid=20589188}}</ref> The stage was set for Theiler to develop a vaccine against the disease. Theiler first devised a test for the efficacy of experimental vaccines. In his test, sera from vaccinated human subjects were injected into mice to see if they protected the mice against yellow fever virus. This "mouse protection test" was used with variations as a measure of immunity until after World War II.<ref name=":1" /> Subculturing the particularly virulent Asibi strain from [[West Africa]] in chicken embryos, a technique pioneered by [[Ernest Goodpasture]], the Rockefeller team sought to obtain an attenuated strain of the virus that would not kill mice when injected into their brains. It took until 1937, and more than 100 subcultures in chicken embryos, for Theiler and his colleague Hugh Smith to obtain an attenuated strain, which they named "17D". Animal tests showed the attenuated 17D mutant was safe and immunizing. Theiler's team rapidly completed the development of a 17D vaccine, and the Rockefeller Foundation began human trials in South America. Between 1940 and 1947, the Rockefeller Foundation produced more than 28 million doses of the vaccine and finally ended yellow fever as a major disease.

For this work, Theiler received the 1951 [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]]. Theiler also was awarded the [[Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene]]'s [[Chalmers Medal]] in 1939, Harvard University's [[Flattery Medal]] in 1945, and the [[American Public Health Association]]'s [[Lasker Award]] in 1949.<ref name=":0" />

== Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus ==
In 1937, Max Theiler discovered a filterable agent that was a known cause for paralysis in mice. He found the virus was not transmittable to rhesus macaques (rhesus monkey, a species of Old World Monkey) and that only some mice developed symptoms.<ref>{{cite journal|pmid=19870629 | doi=10.1084/jem.65.5.705 | pmc=2133518|title=Spontaneous Encephalomyelitis of Mice, A New Virus Disease|year=1937|last1=Theiler|first1=M.|journal=Journal of Experimental Medicine|volume=65|issue=5|pages=705–19}}</ref> The virus is now referred to as [[Theiler's encephalomyelitis virus|Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus]]. The virus has been well characterized, and now serves as a standard model for studying [[multiple sclerosis]].

== Private life ==
He married Lillian Graham (1895–1977) in 1928, and they had one daughter.<ref name=":0" /> He died on 11 August 1972 in [[New Haven, Connecticut]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://globalfirstsandfacts.com/2017/08/25/max-theiler-first-african-to-receive-nobel-prize-in-physiology-or-medicine/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190407154515/http://globalfirstsandfacts.com/2017/08/25/max-theiler-first-african-to-receive-nobel-prize-in-physiology-or-medicine/|url-status=usurped|archive-date=7 April 2019|title=Max Theiler, first African to receive Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|date=2017-08-25|website=Global Firsts and Facts|language=en-US|access-date=2019-08-12}}</ref>

== Publications ==
Max Theiler contributed to three books: 
*''Viral and Rickettsial Infections of Man'' (1948) 
*''Yellow Fever'' (1951) 
*''The Arthropod-Borne Viruses of Vertebrates: An Account of The Rockefeller Foundation Virus Program, 1951–1970'', Max Theiler and [[W. G. Downs]]. (1973) Yale University Press. New Haven and London. {{ISBN|0-300-01508-9}}. 
Theiler wrote numerous papers, published in ''The American Journal of Tropical Medicine'' and ''Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology''.

<!-- already mentioned ==Legacy and honors==
*1939, the [[Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene]]'s [[Chalmers Medal]] 
*1945, [[Harvard University]]'s [[Flattery Medal]]
*1949, the [[American Public Health Association]]'s [[Lasker Award]]
*1951, the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]]

 -->

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Charles, C.W., Jr. "Theiler, Max". ''American National Biography Online'', February 2000.
* "Theiler, Max". ''A Dictionary of Scientists''. Oxford University Press, 1999.

==External links==
* {{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1951 ''The Development of Vaccines against Yellow Fever''

{{Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureates 1951-1975}}
{{1951 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Theiler, Max}}
[[Category:1899 births]]
[[Category:1972 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of King's College London]]
[[Category:Alumni of Pretoria Boys High School]]
[[Category:Alumni of St Thomas's Hospital Medical School]]
[[Category:American Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:American virologists]]
[[Category:Harvard University faculty]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Lasker–DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award]]
[[Category:Rhodes University alumni]]
[[Category:South African emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:South African Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:South African people of Swiss descent]]
[[Category:South African scientists]]
[[Category:University of Cape Town alumni]]
[[Category:White South African people]]
[[Category:Swiss Nobel laureates]]