Thomas Huckle Weller (June 15, 1915 – August 23, 2008) was an American virologist. He,
John Franklin Enders and Frederick Chapman Robbins were awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology
or Medicine in 1954 for showing how to cultivate poliomyelitis viruses in a test tube, using
a combination of human embryonic skin and muscle tissue.Weller was born and grew up
in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and then went to the University of Michigan, where his father Carl
Vernon Weller was a professor in the Department of Pathology. At Michigan, he studied medical
zoology and received a B.S. and an M.S., with his masters thesis on fish parasites. In 1936,
Weller entered Harvard Medical School, and in 1939 began working under John Franklin
Enders, with whom he would later (along with Frederick Chapman Robbins) share the Nobel
Prize. It was Enders who got Weller involved in researching viruses and tissue-culture
techniques for determining infectious disease causes. Weller received his MD in 1940, and
went to work at Children's Hospital in Boston. In 1942, during World War II, he entered the
Army Medical Corps and was stationed at the Antilles Medical Laboratory in Puerto Rico,
earning the rank of Major and heading the facility's Departments of Bacteriology, Virology
and Parasitology. After the War, he returned to Children's Hospital in Boston, and it was
there in 1947, that he rejoined Enders in the newly created Research Division of Infectious
Diseases. After several leading positions, in July 1954, he was appointed Tropical Public
Health Department Head at the Harvard School of Public Health. Weller also served from
1953 to 1959 as Director of the Commission on Parasitic Diseases of the American Armed
Forces Epidemiological Board. In 1954 he was awarded the George Ledlie prize in recognition
of his research on rubella, polio and cytomegalovirus(CMV) viruses.
In addition to his research on polio, for which he won the Nobel Prize, Weller also
contributed to treating schistosomiasis, and Coxsackie viruses. He was also the first to
isolate the virus responsible for varicella. In 1945, Weller married Kathleen Fahey. They
had two sons and two daughters.
== Citations == Zetterström, Rolf; Lagercrantz, Hugo (2006),
"J.F. Enders (1897-1985), T.H. Weller (1915-) and F.C. Robbins (1916-2003): a simplified
method for the multiplication of poliomyelitis virus. Dreams of eradicating a terrifying
disease.", Acta Paediatr. (published Sep 2006), 95 (9), pp. 1026–8, doi:10.1080/08035250600900073,
PMID 16938745 Ligon, B Lee (2002), "Thomas Huckle Weller
MD: Nobel Laureate and research pioneer in poliomyelitis, varicella-zoster virus, cytomegalovirus,
rubella, and other infectious diseases.", Seminars in pediatric infectious diseases
(published Jan 2002), 13 (1), pp. 55–63, doi:10.1053/spid.2002.31314, PMID 12118846
Kyle, R A; Shampo, M A (1997), "Thomas Huckle Weller and the successful culture of poliovirus.",
Mayo Clin. Proc. (published May 1997), 72 (5), p. 422, doi:10.1016/s0025-6196(11)64860-x,
PMID 9146683 Bendiner, E (1982), "Enders, Weller, and Robbins:
the trio that 'fished in troubled waters'.", Hosp. Pract. (Off. Ed.) (published Jan 1982),
17 (1), pp. 163, 169, 174–5 passim, PMID 6295913
Sulek, K (1968), "[Nobel prizes for John F. Enders, Frederick Ch, Robbins and Thomas H.
Weller in 1954 for discovery of the possibility of growing poliomyelitis virus on various
tissue media]", Wiad. Lek. (published Dec 15, 1968), 21 (24), pp. 2301–3, PMID 4303387