Google today celebrated Polish Inventor, doctor and immunologist Rudolf Stefan Weigl’s 138th birthday in a special way with a doodle. Rudolf Stefan Weigl had produced first ever vaccine against infectious disease- epidemic typhus.
The search engine’s doodle showed Rudolf Stefan Weigl’ with a test tube in his hands and drawings of lice on the wall on one side and a human body on the other. Google is spelled with a microscope, beakers on Bunsen burners and test tubes in holders. All these things are neatly placed on laboratory table.
Rudolf Stefan Weigl (2 September 1883 – 11 August 1957) developed a technique to produce a typhus vaccine by growing infected lice and crushing them into a vaccine paste. He discovered that a vaccine could be developed from lice stomachs infected with Rickettsia prowazeki, the causative agent of typhus in humans.
Rudolf Stefan Weigl developed this first version of the vaccine in 1918 and began experimenting on guinea pigs and even human volunteers. He refined this technique over the years until 1933 when he performed large-scale testing to cultivate bacteria and experiment with the lice using a micro-infection strategy.
Weigl was continuously nominated for Nobel Prize each year between 1930 and 1939. Despite these nominations, he never received a Nobel Prize for his vaccine accomplishments or social work.
A half-century after Weigl’s death, his research, work, and service were recognized by many.
In 2003, he was honored as Righteous Among the Nations. This award was given by Israel and commemorated his work for saving lives during World War II.
