Draft:Elsie N. Ward

Dr. Elsie N. Ward was a microbiologist who contributed to the development of a polio vaccine through her work in Jonas Salk's Virus Research Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh. Ward's role was to grow poliovirus in monkey tissues.

In a 1952 experiment, Ward cared for and assessed the test tubes containing monkey cells mixed with live poliovirus and blood from vaccinated individuals. Acid-sensitive red dye was added to the tubes to demonstrate the success of the vaccine. A color change from red to yellow indicated the presence of healthy cells in the test tube, and thus that the vaccine had produced antibodies in sufficient, protective amounts. Ward discovered that the experiment was successful when she entered the lab early one morning in mid-September 1952 and saw the yellow dye within the tubes at her station.

Salk's lab went on to reproduce the results, and in 1955, Thomas Francis announced to scientists and reporters at the University of Michigan that the lab had developed a safe and effective polio vaccine. At that announcement, which Elsie Ward attended, Salk thanked some individuals but none of his team members at the Virus Research Laboratory. In a later interview, Salk credited Ward along with four other scientists from the lab for their work. Ward was the only woman he acknowledged, though many women worked for or contributed to the lab, including Ward's assistants Ethel Bailey and Louise Boccella.