Dr. Victor J. Cabasso

Dr. Victor J. Cabasso, a pioneer virologist and immunologist died on February 28th
2012, at the age of 96. Dr Cabasso was born in Egypt, and was a young
researcher in the Pasteur Institutes in Paris (at the time when Germany invaded
France during world War II), and later in Tunis. He moved to the US after World
War II at the invitation of an army officer who recognized his expertise in the
emerging field of virology. He became chief of immunologic virus research at the Lederle Laboratories where
he and Dr. Albert Sabin created two strains of live polio virus and developed
methods for weakening one strain until it could not possibly cause the disease
while retaining its complete structure - an achievement that become known as
the Sabin live polio vaccine.

Later at Cutter laboratories, Dr. Cabasso led a laboratory team that developed the
first human antirabies serum after six years of experiments - an achievement
that formed the basis of current Rabies Immunoglobulins.

Based on a news article in the San Fransisco Chronicle