American physician

Jonas Salk was one of the United States's best-known microbiologists, chiefly celebrated for his discovery of his polio vaccine. Salk's greatest contribution to immunology was the insight that a "killed virus" is capable of serving as an antigen, prompting the body's immune system to produce antibodies that will attack invading organisms. This realization enabled Salk to develop a polio vaccine composed of killed polio viruses, producing the necessary antibodies to help the body to ward off the disease without itself inducing polio.

The eldest son of Orthodox Jewish-Polish immigrants, Jonas Edward Salk was born in East...