Enders States Measles Virus Now Isolated

1954 Nobel Prize winner John F. Enders of the Medical School reported last night that the research methods he used in isolating the polio virus have now led to the first possible development of a preventive vaccine against messes.

He said he had "very suggestive" evidence that he has isolated and grown the long-sought measles virus. The technique used, he stated, is essentially the same "tissue culture" method that he and his associates developed in paving the way for the Salk polio vaccine.

"All evidence points to the conclusion that we have successfully isolated the virus for the first time," Enders said. "But we have not yet completed the final proof of inoculating a susceptible monkey and actually producing the disease."

Virus Reacts Measles

Enders pointed out that the isolated virus reacts only with antibodies taken from people who have measles. This is a strong indication that the suspected virus is itself measles, he explained.

But the conclusive proof that Enders and his staff at Childrens' Hospital in Boston have isolated--and for the first time grown in a laboratory--the elusive virus will be delayed until Enders returns from receiving his Nobel award in Stockholm in December. He, Dr. Thomas Weller, and Dr. Frederick C. Robbins, were awarded the $36,066 prize for their work in developing the polio vaccine.

Enders says "there is a distinct possibility" that a vaccination of the measles virus, if it actually has been isolated, will develop permanent antibodies in a patient and thus immunize him to the disease.

He also expects to use the virus to analyze the potency of gamma globulin.