Age, Biography and Wiki
Who is it? | Virologist |
Birth Day | January 30, 1899 |
Birth Place | Pretoria, South Africa, South African |
Age | 120 YEARS OLD |
Died On | 11 August 1972(1972-08-11) (aged 73)\nNew Haven, Connecticut, USA |
Birth Sign | Aquarius |
Residence | USA |
Known for | Developing a vaccine against yellow fever |
Awards | Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award (1949) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1951) |
Fields | Virology |
Net worth
Max Theiler was a highly esteemed virologist from South Africa whose net worth is estimated to be between $100K and $1M in 2024. Theiler's groundbreaking contributions to the field of virology have made a significant impact on the world of medicine. He is best known for his development of the first effective vaccine against yellow fever, a deadly mosquito-borne disease. His tireless efforts in research and dedication to saving lives have undoubtedly contributed to his success and financial prosperity. Max Theiler's work continues to be revered and celebrated in the scientific community and beyond.
Biography/Timeline
Theiler was born in Pretoria, then the capital of the South African Republic (now South Africa); his father Arnold Theiler was a veterinary bacteriologist. He attended Pretoria Boys High School, Rhodes University College, and University of Cape Town Medical School, graduating in 1918. He left South Africa for London to study at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, King's College London, and at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In 1922, he was awarded a diploma in tropical Medicine and hygiene; he became a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of London and a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Theiler wanted to pursue a career in research, so in 1922, he took a position at the Harvard University School of Tropical Medicine in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He spent several years investigating amoebic dysentery and trying to develop a vaccine for rat-bite fever.
After becoming assistant to Andrew Sellards, he started working on yellow fever. In 1926, they disproved Hideyo Noguchi's hypothesis that yellow fever was caused by the bacterium Leptospira icteroides. In 1928, the year after the disease was identified conclusively as a virus, they showed that the African and South American viruses are immunologically identical. (This followed Adrian Stokes' inducing yellow fever in rhesus macaques from India). In the course of this research, Theiler contracted yellow fever, but survived and developed immunity.
He married Lillian Graham in 1928, and they had one daughter. He died in New Haven, Connecticut.
In 1930, Theiler moved to the Rockefeller Institute in New York, where he later became Director of the Virus Laboratory. He was professor of epidemiology and public health at Yale University from 1964 to 1967.
In 1937, Max Theiler discovered a filterable agent that was a known cause for paralysis in mice. He found the virus was not transmittable to rhesus macaques, and that only some mice developed symptoms. The virus is now referred to as Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus. The virus has been well characterized, and now serves as a standard model for studying multiple sclerosis.