Boston, the site of IMMUNOLOGY2026™, has a long and exciting history of immunology dating back to early colonial times. The many universities and research institutions in Boston and the surrounding area have been home to foundational discoveries in the field. The city has produced countless scientists who have pushed the field ahead and served as leaders of AAI.
Here are a few of the highlights of a history of immunological advances in Boston. Don’t miss the full exhibit on Boston immunology history at IMMUNOLOGY2026™!
Onesimus Explains Variolation
Amid frequent smallpox epidemics in In the early 18th century, the minister Cotton Mather asked Onesimus, an Africamn man whom he had enslaved, ifhe had had smallpox in Africa. Onesimus described the process of variolation by applying infectious material from a smallpox blister to a small cut in a healthy person’s skin. In fact, he possessed a scar of his own from this practice. The immunity that variolation provided was not perfect, but greatly reduced the risk of the disease.
When the next epidemic hit in 1721, one doctor, Zabdiel Boylston, inoculated 242 Bostonians according to Onesimus’s instructions. Half of the population of Boston contracted smallpox, and while one in seven of them died, only one in 40 of the inoculated perished. The clear evidence led to the practice of variolation being accepted widely throughout the colonies and a dramatic decline in the deathrate from smallpox.
The First Municipal Vaccination Program
After Edward Jenner introduced vaccination with cowpox in England in 1796, the town of Milton, Massachusetts, just south of Boston, ran the first municipal program to offer free vaccination to all inhabitants. To demonstrate the effectiveness, the town leaders took an unusual step in 1809.
They selected twelve vaccinated children, inoculated them with live, virulent smallpox matter, and quarantined them for two weeks. None of the children contracted smallpox.
A Nobel for Polio Research
At Harvard Medical School in 1952, John F. Enders, Thomas Weller, and Frederick Robbins were carrying out culturing experiments on a variety of viruses. Enders suggested that Weller use some leftover flasks from a chickenpox study to see if the medium could culture poliovirus.
The successful culture not only led to the first polio vaccines, but also to the understanding that polio is a disease of the gastrointestinal tract, not just the nervous system. This basic research discovery saved countless lives and earned the trio the Nobel Prize only two years later.
Learn more at IMMUNOLOGY2026™!
From the first successful human organ transplant, to reverse transcriptase, to the multistep leukocyte adhesion cascade, find out more about the rich history of immunology in Boston at IMMUNOLOGY2026™ by visiting the history exhibit on the third floor outside the Ballroom. And don’t miss the new interactive AAI Timeline in the North Lobby.
