1949-1951 Scientists of four laboratories, including the Virus Research Laboratory of Dr. Jonas Salk, complete 2.5 year project to determine how many types of poliovirus exist.
1950 First NFIP-funded Respiratory Study Centers are established in Houston and Boston, leading to a network of 16 respiratory and rehabilitation centers. 1950 First Mothers March on Polio is launched in Phoenix, Arizona. By 1957, Mothers March accounts for nearly one-third of March of Dimes fund-raising revenue.
1951-1952 Gamma Globulin field trials funded by the NFIP are conducted by William McDowell Hammon in three epidemic areas, establishing proof that gamma globulin confers temporary immunity against polio.
1953 NFIP grantee Jonas Salk confirms the feasibility of a killed virus vaccine for polio.
1953 NFIP grantee Albert Sabin succeeds in breeding poliovirus in mutated form.
1953 James Watson, under NFIP fellowship, and Francis Crick publish report identifying the double helical structure of DNA, ushering in the era of molecular biology, and leading to their receiving the Nobel Prize in 1962.
1954 The Salk polio vaccine field trial, the largest field trial in medical history, is conducted in the U.S., Canada, and Finland, with the participation of 1.8 million school children known as “polio pioneers.” Dr. Thomas Francis leads the field trial as director of the Poliomyelitis Vaccine Evaluation Center at the University of Michigan.
1955 The Salk polio vaccine is declared "safe, effective, and potent" at a University of Michigan press conference and is licensed for use in the U.S. the same day (April 12).
1955-1961 The NFIP vigorously promotes a nationwide campaign of polio vaccination that effectively ends polio epidemics in the United States. 1958 The NFIP announces its Expanded Program against birth defects, arthritis, and virus diseases and shortens its name to “The National Foundation” (July 22).
1958 July 22, 1958 – On
this day the March of Dimes announces a new mission, “to determine the causes
of birth defects, develop means of prevention, and promote improvement in
methods of diagnosis and treatment.” The Foundation has long been cited as one
of the few organizations that accomplished its original mission, and the transformation
in 1958 continued its ultimate concern for defeating diseases that originate in
childhood. In the 1960s, the March of Dimes established over 100 birth defects
treatment and evaluation centers in hospitals through the U.S. Soon afterwards,
the March of Dimes moved forward to fund and develop innovative programs in
perinatal healthcare, genetics counseling, and research into the causes of
premature birth and low birth weight at the national, regional, and local
levels.
1958-1959 The National Foundation establishes the first March of Dimes arthritis centers.
1959 The Sabin oral polio vaccine is field-tested in the USSR and eastern Europe.
1959 Virginia Apgar joins the March of Dimes as Director of the Division of Congenital Malformations. Dr. Apgar had developed the Apgar Score, a clinical system for evaluating newborns in the delivery room in 1953. She helped lead the foundation in its shift to birth defects prevention and perinatal health until her death in 1974.
