Google Doodle honours Dr Michiaki Takahashi, the inventor of chickenpox vaccine

A doodle on search giant Google’s homepage on February 17, 2022, has featured Japanese virologist Dr Michiaki Takahashi, the developer of the world’s first vaccine against chickenpox, to commemorate his 94th birthday. 

The doodle, illustrated by Tatsuro Kiuchi, a Tokyo-based artist, depicts Dr Takahashi looking through his microscope, and putting a bandaid on a child’s arm. 

“Thanks to his innovations, millions of cases of chickenpox are prevented each year,” Google said in a note released with the doodle. 

Dr Takahashi was born on this day in 1928 in Japan’s Osaka. His chickenpox vaccine, named ‘Oka’, was developed in 1974 and subsequently approved by the World Health Organization. The lifesaving immunisation went on to be used by 80 countries and was administered to millions of children .

After earning a medical degree from the Osaka university, Dr Takahashi had joined the Research Institute for Microbial Disease at the same university in 1959, to study polio viruses and measles. 

In 1963, Dr Takahashi accepted a research fellowship at Baylor College in the United States. It was during his time at the institute that his son developed a severe case of chickenpox, which led him to change the focus of his research, with the aim of developing a vaccine against the viral illness.

Returning to Japan in 1965, the virologist began culturing weakened, live strains of chickenpox. In 1974, he came up with the first vaccine against Varicella Virus, which causes the disease. The drug was subjected to a thorough trial process, involving immunosuppressed patients, eventually proving to be highly effective. 

The Research Foundation for Microbial Disease at Osaka University began rolling out the vaccine in 1986 in Japan. At the time, Dr Takahashi’s was the only vaccine approved by the World Health Organisation, against Varicella virus. 

In 1994, Dr Takahashi was appointed the director of the Microbial Disease study Group at Osaka University. He held this position until retirement. 

Dr Michiaki Takahashi died in 2013 of a cardiac arrest.

• A doodle on search giant Google’s homepage on February 17, 2022, has featured Japanese virologist Dr Michiaki Takahashi, the developer of the world’s first vaccine against chickenpox, to commemorate his 94th birthday. 
• In 1974, he came up with the first vaccine against Varicella Virus, which causes the disease. The drug was subjected to a thorough trial process, involving immunosuppressed patients, eventually proving to be highly effective. 
• In 1994, Dr Takahashi was appointed the director of the Microbial Disease study Group at Osaka University. He held this position until retirement.