Edward Jenner was born on May 17, 1749, in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England. Hailing from a humble family of clergymen, he was the eighth of nine children. Famously known as the ‘Father of Immunology’, Jenner's interest in science and medicine was sparked during his apprenticeship with a surgeon in his teenage years.
Amidst his other achievements, he is most famous for his pioneering work in developing the smallpox vaccine. In the late 18th Century, smallpox was a highly contagious and deadly disease, which caused widespread suffering and death. Jenner observed that milkmaids who had contracted cowpox, a disease like smallpox but much milder, seemed to be immune to smallpox.
In 1796, Jenner conducted his groundbreaking experiment. He took material from a cowpox sore on a milkmaid named Sarah Nelmes and injected it into the arm of a young boy named James Phipps. After Phipps recovered from cowpox, he further exposed him to smallpox, but the boy did not develop the disease, thus laying the foundation for the concept of vaccination.