David Bodian
Encyclopedia
David Bodian was an American
medical scientist at the Johns Hopkins University
School of Medicine who worked in polio
research . In the early 1940s he helped lay the groundwork for the eventual development of polio vaccines by combining neurological
research with the study of the pathogenesis
of polio. With his understanding of the disease, he made a series of crucial discoveries that paved the way for the final development of a vaccine by Jonas Salk
and later by Albert Sabin
.
,where he attended public school. In 1929 Bodian took up the study of science at the University of Chicago
, where he received a bachelor of science degree in zoology
in 1931, his Ph.D. in anatomy in 1934 and his M.D. in 1937. After spending some months at the University of Michigan
as a National Research Council
Fellow he came to Johns Hopkins University in 1939 as a research fellow in anatomy.This was the beginning of a long-standing partnership with Howard Howe, although in 1941 Bodian served an interim period of a few months as an assistant professor of anatomy
at the Western Reserve University
School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio
.
When the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis
awarded funding to the Department of Epidemiology at the Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health to support research on polio, Bodian returned to Hopkins, and he and Howe joined the School of Hygiene to continue their research.
Bodian advanced from assistant professor in epidemiology to associate professor in 1946, and became Professor of Anatomy and director of the department in 1957.when he accepted the position of professor emeritus of anatomy and neurobiology in the Department of Laryngology
and Otology in 1977, he ran an electron microscopy laboratory. In his later work, Bodian studied the spiral structure within the cochlea
known as the Organ of Corti
.
David Bodian married Elinor Widmont, a medical illustrator and painter who contributed illustrations to some of Bodian’s published articles, in 1944. They had five children.
Bodian died of Parkinson's disease
in September 1992.
were crucial for the development of a vaccine against polio.In 1946 Isabel Morgan
joined the team
and together they found out that there were three basic immunological types of poliovirus
, explaining the phenomenon of second infections and the fact that artificial immunity to only one strain would not protect against infection with one of the others. Their publication on the “Differentiation of Types of Poliomyelitis Viruses,” in the American Journal of Hygiene in 1949 became a milestone in the development of new polio vaccine methods.
The contributions of Bodian, Morgan, and Howe thus laid the scientific groundwork for the subsequent development of the Salk and Sabin polio vaccines. In Bodian's own summary their accomplishments were:
from the American Academy of Pediatrics
. In 1958, he was inducted along with his colleagues Howe and Morgan and twelve other polio experts into the Polio Hall of Fame
at the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences
in 1958, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in 1968,He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in 19XX. and the American Philosophical Society
in 1973. In 1985, the Society honored him with the Karl Spencer Lashley Award. Bodian was an honorary member of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland, the French Neurological Society, and the Mexican Society of Anatomy, and he served as president of the American Association of Anatomists from 1971 to 1972.
In 1980, the Johns Hopkins University dedicated the Bodian Room in recognition of his contributions to polio research. He received an honorary doctorate from the university in 1987, and the year before
his death, in the spring of 1991, the School of Hygiene and Public Health named him one of seventy-five “Heroes of Public Health.”
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
medical scientist at the Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
School of Medicine who worked in polio
Poliomyelitis
Poliomyelitis, often called polio or infantile paralysis, is an acute viral infectious disease spread from person to person, primarily via the fecal-oral route...
research . In the early 1940s he helped lay the groundwork for the eventual development of polio vaccines by combining neurological
Neurology
Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...
research with the study of the pathogenesis
Pathology
Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....
of polio. With his understanding of the disease, he made a series of crucial discoveries that paved the way for the final development of a vaccine by Jonas Salk
Jonas Salk
Jonas Edward Salk was an American medical researcher and virologist, best known for his discovery and development of the first safe and effective polio vaccine. He was born in New York City to parents from Ashkenazi Jewish Russian immigrant families...
and later by Albert Sabin
Albert Sabin
Albert Bruce Sabin was an American medical researcher best known for having developed an oral polio vaccine.-Life:...
.
Biography
David Bodian was born in St. Louis to Jewish parents who had recently immigrated from the Ukraine. He grew up in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
,where he attended public school. In 1929 Bodian took up the study of science at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, where he received a bachelor of science degree in zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
in 1931, his Ph.D. in anatomy in 1934 and his M.D. in 1937. After spending some months at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
as a National Research Council
United States National Research Council
The National Research Council of the USA is the working arm of the United States National Academies, carrying out most of the studies done in their names.The National Academies include:* National Academy of Sciences...
Fellow he came to Johns Hopkins University in 1939 as a research fellow in anatomy.This was the beginning of a long-standing partnership with Howard Howe, although in 1941 Bodian served an interim period of a few months as an assistant professor of anatomy
Anatomy
Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...
at the Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University is a private research university located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA...
School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
.
When the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis
March of Dimes
The March of Dimes Foundation is a United States nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies.-Organization:...
awarded funding to the Department of Epidemiology at the Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health to support research on polio, Bodian returned to Hopkins, and he and Howe joined the School of Hygiene to continue their research.
Bodian advanced from assistant professor in epidemiology to associate professor in 1946, and became Professor of Anatomy and director of the department in 1957.when he accepted the position of professor emeritus of anatomy and neurobiology in the Department of Laryngology
Laryngology
Laryngology is that branch of medicine which deals with disorders, diseases and injuries of the vocal apparatus, especially the larynx. Common conditions addressed by laryngologists include vocal fold nodules and cysts, laryngeal cancer, spasmodic dysphonia, laryngopharyngeal reflux, papillomas,...
and Otology in 1977, he ran an electron microscopy laboratory. In his later work, Bodian studied the spiral structure within the cochlea
Cochlea
The cochlea is the auditory portion of the inner ear. It is a spiral-shaped cavity in the bony labyrinth, making 2.5 turns around its axis, the modiolus....
known as the Organ of Corti
Organ of Corti
The organ of Corti is the organ in the inner ear of mammals that contains auditory sensory cells, or "hair cells."The organ was named after the Italian anatomist Marquis Alfonso Giacomo Gaspare Corti , who conducted microscopic research of the mammaliean auditory system.-Structure and function:The...
.
David Bodian married Elinor Widmont, a medical illustrator and painter who contributed illustrations to some of Bodian’s published articles, in 1944. They had five children.
Bodian died of Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...
in September 1992.
Pioneer work on polio vaccines
Over the next twenty years, the Hopkins team made a series of discoveries, several of whichwere crucial for the development of a vaccine against polio.In 1946 Isabel Morgan
Isabel Morgan
Isabel Merrick Morgan was an American virologist at Johns Hopkins University,...
joined the team
and together they found out that there were three basic immunological types of poliovirus
Poliovirus
Poliovirus, the causative agent of poliomyelitis, is a human enterovirus and member of the family of Picornaviridae.Poliovirus is composed of an RNA genome and a protein capsid. The genome is a single-stranded positive-sense RNA genome that is about 7500 nucleotides long. The viral particle is...
, explaining the phenomenon of second infections and the fact that artificial immunity to only one strain would not protect against infection with one of the others. Their publication on the “Differentiation of Types of Poliomyelitis Viruses,” in the American Journal of Hygiene in 1949 became a milestone in the development of new polio vaccine methods.
The contributions of Bodian, Morgan, and Howe thus laid the scientific groundwork for the subsequent development of the Salk and Sabin polio vaccines. In Bodian's own summary their accomplishments were:
- 1) the elucidation of the pathogenesis and pathology of poliovirus in monkeys, chimpanzees and man; 2) the introduction of the chimpanzee into poliomyelitis research, as a model for the disease in human beings; 3) the demonstration that experimental primates and man could be successfully immunized with formalin-treated virus, and that immunity in monkeys was correlated with the presence of serum antibody; 4) the discovery of the three basic immunological poliovirus types. These studies were crucial for setting the stage for vaccine development; 5) the demonstration of a viremic phase of poliovirus infection in the pre-symptomatic period, and its relationship to poliovirus invasion of the central nervous system; and 6) the demonstration that minimal levels of serum antibody were sufficient to protect against poliovirus invasion of the central nervous system, after virus feeding, by blockage of viremic invasion.
Honors and awards
In 1941 Bodian received the E. Mead Johnson Award in PediatricsPediatrics
Pediatrics or paediatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. A medical practitioner who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician or paediatrician...
from the American Academy of Pediatrics
American Academy of Pediatrics
The American Academy of Pediatrics is the major professional association of pediatricians in the United States. The AAP was founded in 1930 by 35 pediatricians to address pediatric healthcare standards. It currently has 60,000 members in primary care and sub-specialist areas...
. In 1958, he was inducted along with his colleagues Howe and Morgan and twelve other polio experts into the Polio Hall of Fame
Polio Hall of Fame
The Polio Hall of Fame consists of a linear grouping of sculptured busts of fifteen scientists and two laymen who made important contributions to the knowledge and treatment of poliomyelitis...
at the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
in 1958, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
in 1968,He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
in 19XX. and the American Philosophical Society
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743, and located in Philadelphia, Pa., is an eminent scholarly organization of international reputation, that promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications,...
in 1973. In 1985, the Society honored him with the Karl Spencer Lashley Award. Bodian was an honorary member of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland, the French Neurological Society, and the Mexican Society of Anatomy, and he served as president of the American Association of Anatomists from 1971 to 1972.
In 1980, the Johns Hopkins University dedicated the Bodian Room in recognition of his contributions to polio research. He received an honorary doctorate from the university in 1987, and the year before
his death, in the spring of 1991, the School of Hygiene and Public Health named him one of seventy-five “Heroes of Public Health.”
Further reading
- David OshinskyDavid OshinskyDavid M. Oshinsky is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American historian; he currently holds the Jack S. Blanton chair in history at the University of Texas at Austin and is a distinguished scholar in residence at New York University....
: Polio: An American Story. Oxford University Press, 2005 ISBN 0-19-515294-8. - Elizabeth Fee, Manon Perry: David Bodian in: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society Vol. 150, NO. 1, March 2006 pp. 167–172, also as PDF-File