New United States Postal Service stamp honors an American scientist

Dr. Trudeau’s legacy, researchers at the internationally-renowned Trudeau Institute are committed to improving human health through world-class research. Click here for more information.

Ninety-five year old Elise Chapin, who contracted TB at the age of 22, traveled from Maryland to Saranac Lake for treatment in 1935. While reflecting on her life’s experiences, she noted: “I had no idea when I arrived in Saranac Lake and was encouraged to lay down to rest, that I would not leave that cottage for three years.” Mrs. Chapin still lives in Saranac Lake, and the cottage where she cured still stands, as do many “cure cottages” in the Village.

After recovering from the disease, Dr. Trudeau went on to establish the first American laboratory solely dedicated to the research of tuberculosis. By the 1950's, after the introduction of antibiotics to treat the disease, it was widely believed that the worldwide scourge of tuberculosis had been defeated and that sanitariums had outlived their usefulness. Dr. Francis Trudeau, E.L. Trudeau’s grandson used the proceeds from the sale of the sanitarium to create a new research center devoted to the study of basic biological research.

The Trudeau Institute Click here for more information.

Today, the internationally-renowned Trudeau Institute is home to world-class scientists and their highly-trained research teams, who all study some aspect of infection and immunity across a variety of different pathogens. Their studies focus not only on immune responses to major infectious diseases, such as influenza, but also on the role of the immune system in cancer, autoimmunity and aging.