Hilary Koprowski

Hilary Koprowski (5 December 191611 April 2013) was a Polish virologist and immunologist. He was the first scientist to produce attenuated poliovirus and to conduct large-scale clinical research studies of an oral polio vaccine. His vaccine was used to immunize millions of children during trials in the Belgian Congo and Poland. He was the director of the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology from 1957 to 1991 where he developed an improved rabies vaccine and pioneered the usage of monoclonal antibodies for cancer diagnosis and treatment. He was a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Center of Neurovirology and Biotechnology Foundation Laboratories at Thomas Jefferson University. He co-founded the biotechnology firm Centocor in 1979.

He was accused in the oral polio vaccine AIDS hypothesis that HIV/AIDS originated from his oral polio vaccine studied in the Belgian Congo. This hypothesis was challenged and scientists have largely rejected it.

He received the Philadelphia Award in 1989; the Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal for his work in biomedical research in 2007; the John Scott Medal; and the Legion of Honour. Drexel University College of Medicine established the Hilary Koprowski Prize in Neurovirology in his honor. In 2018, Poland posthumously conferred the Order of the White Eagle upon Koprowski.

Early life and education Koprowski was born December 5, 1916, in Warsaw, Poland. His father was a textile manufacturer and his mother was a dentist.

He began playing piano at age 5. and received a degree in piano from the Warsaw Conservatory.

In 1939, after the invasion of Poland, Koprowski and his pregnant wife, fled the country, using Koprowski family business connections in Manchester, England. Hilary went to Rome and studied piano at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory.

Career

Koprowski worked with Edwin Herman Lennette and Max Theiler in Rio de Janeiro for the Rockefeller Foundation laboratories as a research assistant. and monitored yellow fever vaccine trials. He impressed the senior staff and a position was found for him at Lederle Laboratories in Pearl River, New York. He published a paper on the development of the first attenuated polio vaccine in 1952, a few years before Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin. Koprowski's work on an attenuated vaccine laid the groundwork for the eventual success that Albert Sabin had with his oral polio vaccine. He administered the vaccine to himself in January 1948 and on 20 children at Letchworth Village, a home for disabled persons. Seventeen of the 20 children developed antibodies to polio virus — the other three apparently already had antibodies — and none of the children developed polio.

Koprowski viewed the live vaccine as more powerful, since it entered the intestinal tract directly and could provide lifelong immunity, whereas the Salk vaccine required booster shots. Also, administering a vaccine by mouth is easy, whereas an injection requires medical facilities and is more expensive.

In the mid-1950s, Koprowski and Albert Sabin worked separately to attenuate polioviruses in monkey kidney cells. They were both successful but Koprowski was the first to conduct large-scale clinical research studies on his polio vaccine. In 1958, the Koprowski vaccine was used to immunize 250,000 children in Belgian Congo in 6 weeks. In 1959 and 1960, the Koprowski vaccine was used to immunize nine million children in Poland and halted a polio outbreak there. The journal Science refuted Hooper's claims, writing: "t can be stated with almost complete certainty that the large polio vaccine trial... was not the origin of AIDS."

Koprowski rejected the claim, based on his own analysis. In a separate court case, he won a regretful clarification, and a symbolic award of $1 in damages, in a defamation suit against Rolling Stone, which had published an article repeating similar false allegations. Rolling Stone published an apology. A concurrent defamation lawsuit that Koprowski brought against the Associated Press was settled several years later; the settlement's terms were not publicly disclosed. including cancer immunotherapy The group developed the HDCV rabies vaccine in the 1960s at the Wistar Institute. The improved vaccine had less injections, good efficacy, and fewer side effects. It was licensed for use in the United States in 1980. The Wistar Institute also developed a rubella vaccine and a rotavirus vaccine while Koprowski led the organization. He was dismissed from the Wistar Institute in 1991. He sued the board of trustees of the institute for age and personal discrimination and the board sued him for profiting from scientific discoveries made at the institute through his co-founding of Centocor.

Koprowski died on April 11, 2013, aged 96, He was interred at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

Honors and legacy Koprowski received the John Scott Medal He was a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, which in 1959 presented him with its Alvarenga Prize.

On 1 May 2007, Koprowski was awarded the Albert Sabin Gold Medal by the Sabin Vaccine Institute for his work in biomedical research.

Drexel University College of Medicine established the Hilary Koprowski Prize in Neurovirology in honor of Dr. Koprowski's contributions to the field of neurovirology.

In 2018, at a ceremony held at the Royal Castle in Warsaw on the 100th anniversary of Poland regaining its independence, Polish President Andrzej Duda posthumously conferred the country's highest distinction, the Order of the White Eagle, upon 25 distinguished Poles including Koprowski.

Personal life He met Irena Koprowska while studying at University of Warsaw Medical School. They were married in secret in 1938, and together had two sons.