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Date: September 25, 1996 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Robert Bock or Clarissa Wittenberg , (301) 496-5133
Two NICHD scientists, John Robbins, MD, and Rachel
Schneerson, MD., will receive the 1996 Albert Lasker Clinical
Medical Research Award for the landmark development of a polysaccharide-protein
conjugate vaccine for Hemophilus influenzae type b (Hib).
Drs. Robbins and Schneerson joined the NICHD in 1962,
soon after the Institute was established by Congress. At that
time, the leading cause of acquired mental retardation in the
United States was brain damage from meningitis caused by Hib.
Meningitis is a potentially fatal infection of the membranes surrounding
the brain. Even with effective antibiotic treatment of Hib infection,
5 percent of those who contracted it died and about 30 percent
had residual central nervous system damage, including mental retardation,
deafness or seizures. Because of the development of the vaccine,
however, Hib infection has been reduced by more than 95 percent
in the U.S.
The Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards Program
recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions
in basic and clinical research in the diseases which are the main
causes of death and disability. The Clinical Medical Research
Award honors investigators whose achievements have improved the
clinical treatment of patients, helping to prolong the prime of
life, and alleviating or eliminating major causes of disability
and death.
The two NICHD investigators will share the award with two other scientists who worked independently of them as part of another team to develop the Hib vaccine, Porter Warren Anderson Jr., PhD, and David Hamilton Smith, MD.
Robbins and Schneerson originally set up the Laboratory of Developmental and Molecular Immunity, which was dedicated to preventing bacterial infections by developing effective vaccines, using bacterial polysaccharide coats as the antigen. At the beginning of this research effort, many scientists believed it was impossible to develop a vaccine for infants using a polysaccharide. In this early research, Robbins and Schneerson tested the Hib purified polysaccharide vaccine, and found that it was safe and stimulated protective levels of antibody in adults and older children. Scientists supported by NIH's National Institute of llergy and Infectious Diseases did further testing and, with the added involvement of industry, three Hib polysaccharide vaccines were produced and licensed in 1985.
Although effective, the polysaccharide vaccine failed to stimulate protective antibody levels in infants, the age group with the highest incidence of serious disease. In work for which they would later receive their Lasker Award, the two NICHD investigators developed a new onjugate technology to create a vaccine. They linked a weak polysaccharide to a protein easily recognized by the immature immune system. The conjugate vaccine was soon found to be effective in infants as well as older children. Since 1987, Hib conjugate vaccines have been licensed and marketed, and have become part of the routine pediatric immunization series given to babies starting at age 2 months.
Since routine use of Hib conjugate vaccine began in the U.S., the number of cases of Hib meningitis or sepsis has fallen from 15-20,000 per year to less than 100. Hib conjugate vaccines are now also used routinely in Canada, Western Europe, and many other countries. Wherever these vaccines have been used, Hib meningitis has virtually disappeared.
Drs. Robbins and Schneerson and other investigators in NICHD's Laboratory of Developmental and Molecular Immunity have also developed an improved vaccine for pertussis, typhoid fever, shigellosis
(dystentery), E. coli 0157, a life-threatenin bacterial
contaminant of beef (most recently implicated in epidemic illness
in Japan), pneumonia, Strep, Staph, and meningococcus.