Rachel Schneerson

After the success of the Hib vaccine, Schneerson and Robbins continued their work on single antigens and conjugate vaccines. Their efforts led to the development and licensing of vaccines against pertussis (whooping cough), typhoid, Staphylococcus infections (pneumonia, aureus, and Group B), certain types of malaria, and anthrax. Additional information about their more recent research is available at http://2012annualreport.nichd.nih.gov/pdmi.html.

Schneerson retired from the federal government in July 2012.

Schneerson received the 1996 Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research and the Pasteur Award from the World Health Organization Children's Vaccine Initiative, both with her colleague Robbins. In 1998, she received a Citation Award from the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

The vaccine was licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and became part of the standard immunization series for infants in 1987. In just a few years, Hib cases fell to fewer than 100 per year, a 99% drop. Most pediatricians trained since 1995 have never seen a Hib case. In countries where the vaccine is used, including the United States, Hib is no longer a cause of acquired intellectual disability.

Studies in animals, adult humans, and children documented that injecting the polysaccharide alone could induce protective levels of antibodies to Hib. Using polysaccharides also eliminated many of the severe side effects of killed-bacteria vaccines. Scientists supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases did further vaccine testing. With the added involvement of industry, three Hib-purified polysaccharide vaccines were produced and licensed in 1985.

Schneerson and Robbins returned to the NICHD in 1983 to head the Laboratory of Developmental and Molecular Immunity within the Division of Intramural Research. In 1998, Schneerson and Robbins were named heads of the Section on Bacterial Disease Pathogenesis and Immunity. The two continued leading the lab until their retirement in July 2012.

Schneerson and Robbins came to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in 1970 after being recruited by the Institute’s then Scientific Director Charles Lowe. In 1974, the two went to the Division of Bacterial Products, where Robbins was named chief, at the Bureau of Biologics within the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Schneerson advanced from a visiting scientist to a senior staff fellow to a supervisory research medical officer during her time in the Division.

In 1969, she came to the United States to be an instructor in the Department of Pediatrics and the Laboratory of Immunology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, where she met John B. Robbins. The two became an inseparable research team, “dedicated to developing vaccines to protect children from bacterial diseases.”

Scheerson did a rotating internship at Tel-Hashomer Government Hospital, Tel-Aviv, Israel, followed by pediatrics residency at Hillel-Jaffe Government Hospital, Hadera, Israel. She then returned to Tel-Hashomer Government Hospital, in Tel-Aviv, for a pediatrics residency and a year as a senior resident in Internal Medicine and Cytogenetics. In 1966, Schneerson was board certified in pediatrics in Israel and became a senior pediatrician at Tel-Hashomer.

Rachel Schneerson (born April 25, 1932) is a former senior investigator in the Laboratory in Developmental and Molecular Immunity and head of the Section on Bacterial Disease Pathogens and Immunity within the Laboratory at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development within the National Institutes of Health. She is best known for her development of the vaccine against bacterial meningitis (Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib)) with her colleague John B. Robbins.

Rachel Schneerson was born on April 25, 1932, in Warsaw, Poland. She earned her medical degree from Haddasah Medical School, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel, in 1958.