The American virologist John Franklin Enders (1897-1985), a leader in modern virology, cultivated poliovirus in tissue cultures of human cells and developed an attenuated live vaccine for measles.

John Franklin Enders was born on Feb. 10, 1897, in West Hartford, Conn. After serving from 1917 to 1920 in the United States Naval Reserve Flying Corps, he achieved his undergraduate degree at Yale University. In 1922, he earned a master's degree in English at Harvard University. But before completing doctoral work he became attracted to the study of bacteriology under Hans Zinsser, with whom he developed methods of synthesizing anti-typhus vaccines. He was married to Sarah Bennett in 1927, with whom he had two children; she died in 1943. In 1930 he received his doctorate in microbiology. He then embarked upon a remarkable and productive career as a member of the faculty of Harvard Medical School. During World War II, he was a civilian consultant on epidemic...