About Research
Historic Breakthroughs

[Pictured front to back, left to right] Josef Warkany, Dept. of Human Genetics; Dr. Ashley Weech; Albert Sabin, Dept. of Virology; Frederic Silverman, Dept. of Radiology; Robert Lyon, Dept. of Community Pediatrics; Clark West, Division of Nephrology; Benjamin Landing, Division of Pathology; Eugene Lahey, Division of Hematology/Oncology

NOT PICTURED: Samuel Kaplan, Div. of Cardiology; Merlin Cooper, Div. of Bacteriology; George Guest, Director of Children's Hospital Research Foundation.

Albert Sabin, MD spent 30 years at Cincinnati Children's [1939-1969]. During WWII, he did research for the Department of War on encephalitis, sandfly fever, and dengue fever. After that he returned to his work with polio.

The Children's Hospital Research Foundation opened in 1931.

In this photo from 1939, a boy in an iron lung due to polio joins other children in a playroom. The Cincinnati Reds were National League Champions in 1939, and the children are listening to a World Series game. The year was momentous for another reason: Albert Sabin joined the Research Foundation in 1939. The vaccine he would develop here conquered polio around the world.

William Cooper Procter, president of the board of trustees (1921-1934), moved the hospital to its current location, advocated affiliation with the College of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati, and contributed $2.5 million to build and endow the Research Foundation. His vision and philanthropy resulted in dramatic expansion in the hospital’s size, scope, mission and reputation.

A Proud Legacy of Innovation

Cincinnati Children’s traces its roots back to 1884, when the newly formed Hospital of the Protestant Episcopal Church converted a three-bedroom house into a hospital devoted to serving children.

The Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation – the medical center’s research arm − was founded in 1931 through an endowment from William Cooper Procter, chairman of the hospital’s board of trustees and grandson of William Procter, the cofounder of Procter & Gamble Co.

Since then, major research expansions occurred in 1950, 1968, 1991, 1998, 2000, 2008 and 2015 as the foundation grew to become the nation’s second largest recipient of research grants from the National Institutes of Health to pediatric institutions.

Today, our work encompasses basic, translational, clinical and quality outcomes research aimed at improving child health. Research breakthroughs from our past serve to inspire us today as we look to genomics, molecular medicine and pharmaceutical therapies to treat a wide range of pediatric afflictions.

Our Medical Breakthroughs

Dr. Albert Sabin administering oral vaccine to children. Back of photo says - Dr. Sabin shows how the teaspoonful of cherry-flavored vaccine is "fed" to children.

The Sabin Oral Polio Vaccine

The live oral vaccine developed at Cincinnati Children’s by Albert Sabin, MD (pictured), vastly amplified the early gains against polio made by the injected Salk vaccine. As vaccination programs mushroomed, hundreds of thousands of lives were spared from the paralytic disease. Clinical testing of Sabin’s vaccine began in other nations in 1957. US testing began with the first “Sabin Sunday,” held in Cincinnati on April 24, 1960. Overall, Sabin’s research included some 350 scientific papers on topics that also included pneumonia, encephalitis, toxoplasmosis, viruses, sandfly fever, dengue and cancer.

The First Practical Heart-Lung Machine

In 1951, cardiologist Samuel Kaplan, MD, joined surgeon James Helmsworth, MD, and chemist Leland Clark, PhD, to develop the world’s first functional heart-lung machine, which was based on a bubble oxygenator that Clark developed two years earlier. Clark’s other major contributions include developing the oxygen electrode and using perfluorocarbons in liquid breathing and artificial blood compounds.

Artificial Surfactant

Jeffrey Whitsett, MD (pictured), and Timothy Weaver, PhD, were pioneers in understanding lung surfactant during the 1980s. Their research ultimately resulted in identification and cloning of surfactant proteins considered vital to surfactant replacement therapy. Since widespread introduction in 1989, artificial surfactant has transformed care for premature infants, saving an estimated 2,000 lives a year in the United States and many more worldwide.

Rotavirus Vaccine

More than 20 years of research by Richard Ward, PhD (pictured), and David Bernstein, MD, led to the development of Rotarix, an oral vaccine made by GlaxoSmithKline and licensed for US use in 2008 for the treatment of acute diarrhea due to rotavirus. Since 2004, when Mexico became the first nation to approve the vaccine, more than 114 nations have licensed Rotarix and more than 30 million children have received the vaccine. Wherever the vaccine has been widely distributed, deaths and hospitalizations from this common childhood killer have plummeted. Cincinnati Children’s continues to serve as one of the nation’s leading vaccine research centers.

About ResearchHistoric Breakthroughs