John Enders developed the first successful measles vaccine, licensed in the United States in 1963.
Enders and his colleagues isolated measles virus and grew it in laboratory cell cultures. Their work allowed researchers to weaken the virus so it could stimulate protective immunity without producing typical severe measles. The vaccine was licensed after clinical testing and became a major tool against a highly contagious childhood disease.
Maurice Hilleman later developed an improved measles vaccine strain, Edmonston-Enders, which became widely used. Measles vaccine is now generally given as part of the combined measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, known as MMR.
Measles vaccination prevents measles; it does not cause autism, a claim contradicted by extensive evidence. Enders had already shared the 1954 Nobel Prize for work on cultivating poliovirus in tissue culture.