John F. Enders' research on viruses and his advances in tissue culture enabled microbiologists Albert Sabin and Jonas Salk to develop vaccines against polio, a major crippler of children in the first half of the twentieth century. Enders' work also served as a catalyst in the development of vaccines against measles, mumps and chickenpox. As a result of this work, Enders was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology.

John Franklin Enders was born February 10, 1897, in West Hartford, Connecticut. His parents were John Enders, a wealthy banker, and Harriet Whitmore Enders. Entering Yale in 1914, Enders left during his junior year to enlist in the U.S. Naval Reserve Flying Corps following America's entry into World War I in 1917. After serving as a flight instructor and rising to the rank of lieutenant, he returned to Yale, graduating in 1920. After a brief venture as a real estate agent, Enders...