[Sixty years ago, cell cultures finally permitted the poliomyelitis virus to multiply easily]

In 1949, three American virologists, John F. Enders, Thomas H. Weller and Frederick C. Robbins, from the Harvard Medical Scholl and working at the Children's Medical Centre, Boston, Mass., have provoked a true revolution in Virology. Here, they have succeeded in readily multiplying the three poliomyelitis viruses in vitro, in non-nervous cells cultures. A few years afterwards (1954), they were collectively honoured by the Nobel Prize of Physiology and Medicine. This discovery not only has quickly led to the production of efficient poliomyelitis vaccines (J. E. Salk, 1953; A. B. Sabin, 1955) but also has permitted to easily isolate a number of already known viruses (measles, rubella, mumps, herpes simplex and herpes zoster) or until then totally unknown viruses (adenovirus, echovirus, cytomegalovirus). These progresses have significantly contributed to improve diagnosis, sanitary surveillance and vaccinal prophylaxis of human and animal viral diseases. Moreover, the cells cultures techniques have also benefited to other domains of fundamental Biology, such as cellular biology, genetics, cancerology, biology of the reproduction and regenerative medicine as well.