Wilson Smith facts for kids
Wilson Smith (born June 21, 1897, died July 10, 1965) was a British doctor and scientist. He studied viruses (virologist) and how the body fights sickness (immunologist). He was a key person in finding the influenza virus (flu virus). He also helped create one of the first vaccines to protect people from the flu.
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Early Life and Education
Wilson Smith was born in Great Harwood, England. When he was ten, his father passed away. His mother raised him and his three siblings.
While in his last year at Accrington Grammar School, he also taught at a local elementary school. From 1915 to 1919, he served in the military during World War I. He was a private in the R.A.M.C. (Royal Army Medical Corps) in France and Belgium.
After the war, in 1919, he began studying medicine at the University of Manchester. He became a qualified doctor and surgeon in 1923. For two years, he worked as a doctor in Manchester. He also spent a year as a ship's doctor on a cargo ship. In 1927, he earned a higher medical degree after studying bacteriology.
Discovering the Flu Virus
Smith then started working in medical research. He led a virus research team at the Medical Research Council in London.
In 1933, Wilson Smith and his colleagues, Christopher Andrewes and Patrick Laidlaw, made a big discovery. They successfully isolated the human influenza A virus. This meant they could take the virus from a sick person and grow it in a lab. They even showed it could infect ferrets.
Developing Flu Vaccines
Finding the virus was a huge step toward making a vaccine. A vaccine helps your body learn to fight off a virus before you get sick.
That same year, 1936, saw the development of two influenza A vaccines in embryonated eggs, one (live) by Wilson Smith ... and the other (killed, whole virus) by Thomas Francis and Thomas Magill. ... In 1937 Anatol Smorodintsev and colleagues in the Soviet Union reported on the administration of the Wilson Smith strain to humans, using doses that were lethal to mice. ... This vaccine is considered the first live human influenza virus vaccine, and although it would not receive a passing grade by today's standards (20% of vaccinees developed febrile influenza), it absolutely demonstrated the role of the virus in the development of influenza. ...
In 1936, Wilson Smith developed one of the first flu vaccines. His vaccine used a "live" but weakened form of the virus. It was grown in fertilized chicken eggs. This was a very important step in fighting the flu.
Another group of scientists also developed a "killed" virus vaccine around the same time. In 1937, scientists in the Soviet Union tested Smith's vaccine on people. Even though it caused some fever in a few people, it proved that the virus caused the flu. It also showed that a vaccine could help protect people.
Later Career and Contributions
In 1939, Smith became a professor of bacteriology at the University of Sheffield. Later, in 1946, he became a professor at the University College Hospital Medical School in London. He retired in 1960 but kept doing research.
Wilson Smith also played a key role in bringing the polio vaccine to the United Kingdom. He led an important research board for the Medical Research Council.
Awards and Recognition
Smith received many honors for his scientific work.
- In 1949, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very respected group of scientists.
- In 1957, he gave the important Leeuwenhoek Lecture for the Royal Society.
- In 1959, he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He also received their Bose Prize that year.
- In 1960, he was the vice-president of the Royal Society.
- He also received the Graham Gold Medal from the University of London in 1960.
Personal Life
Outside of his scientific work, Wilson Smith enjoyed playing the violin. He often played in string quartets with his friends. In 1927, he married Muriel Mary Nutt, who was also a bacteriologist. They had two daughters.
His brother George was a lecturer in mycology (the study of fungi). His brother Howard was a lecturer in theology (the study of religion).
