Michiaki Takahashi: who was today’s doodle?

Ninety-four years ago, on February 17, 1928, Michiaki Takahashi, the inventor of the first vaccine against the virus that causes chickenpox, was born in Osaka (Japan). If you have seen the Google page you will have already discovered that today’s doodle, illustrated by the artist by the artist Tatsuro Kiuchi, is dedicated to him.

As Google recounts, the scientist, who died in 2013, began battling chickenpox after his three-year-old son developed a severe form of the disease. Takahashi graduated from Osaka University and then began his career at his university’s Research Institute for Microbial Diseases in 1959. After studying measles and polio viruses, Takahashi accepted a research fellowship in the United States in 1963. It was here that his son became seriously ill, after being in contact with a child who had chickenpox, and that the scholar focused his work against this highly communicable disease.

In 1965, Takahashi returned to Japan and began growing live but weakened chickenpox viruses in animal and human tissues. After only five years of development, he was ready for clinical trials. In 1974, the first vaccine against the virus that causes chickenpox was ready. Rigorous research with immunosuppressed patients followed which confirmed the high efficacy of the vaccine. In 1986, the one developed by Takahashi was the only chickenpox vaccine approved by the World Health Organization.

The life-saving Takahashi vaccine was soon used in over 80 countries, preventing millions of cases of chickenpox each year. Not only that: the vaccine seems to have a protective effect in comparison with Herpes zoster, the shingles. The disease caused by the chickenpox virus, often considered not very serious, frequently affects children between the ages of 3 and 7 and can be very dangerous for those under the age of 1. It can also cause rare but important complications, such as cerebellitis, an inflammation of the cerebellum.