14 Facts About Maurice Brodie

Maurice Brodie was a British-born American virologist who developed a polio vaccine in 1935.

Maurice Brodie graduated from Lisgar Collegiate Institute and McGill University Faculty of Medicine, Alpha Omega Alpha, in 1928; he was named a Wood Gold Medalist.

Maurice Brodie served as a medical intern, and in 1931 he received a Master of Science degree in physiology from McGill.

Maurice Brodie joined the New York City Health Department and the bacteriology department at New York University Medical College.

In 1935, Maurice Brodie demonstrated induction of immunity in monkeys with inactivated polio virus.

Maurice Brodie was head of one of two separate teams that developed polio vaccines and reported their results at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association in November 1935.

Maurice Brodie had developed an attenuated poliovirus vaccine, which he tested in about 10,000 children across much of the United States and Canada.

Maurice Brodie had no control group, but asserted that many more children would have gotten sick.

Maurice Brodie presented his results afterwards, but the feelings of the researchers were already unfavorable before he started because of Kolmer's report.

Rockefeller Institute Virologist Thomas Rivers declared that Maurice Brodie's vaccine was ineffective, while the safety of Kolmer's vaccine was in doubt.

In 1936, Maurice Brodie moved to Detroit, where he became director of laboratories at Providence Hospital and hospital pathologist.

Maurice Brodie died suddenly while working in his laboratory, 3:45 pm, Tuesday, May 9,1939.

Maurice Brodie was interred in the Jewish Cemetery on Metcalfe Road in Ottawa.

Maurice Brodie was a brother of Bernard Beryl Brodie, a leading researcher on drug therapy.