Who invented the MMR vaccine and when?
The component viral strains of MMR vaccine were developed by propagation in animal and human cells. The live viruses require animal or human cells as a host for production of more virus. For example, in the case of mumps and measles viruses, the virus strains were grown in embryonated hens’ eggs and chick embryo cell cultures. This produced strains of virus which were adapted for the hens egg and less well-suited for human cells. These strains are therefore called attenuated strains. They are sometimes referred to as neuroattenuated because these strains are less virulent to human neurons than the wild strains. The Rubella component, Meruvax, is propagated using a human cell line (WI-38, named for the Wistar Institute) derived in 1961 from embryonic lung tissue.[10] This cell line was originally prepared from tissues of aborted fetuses, raising religious objections.
