Edwin D. Kilbourne, one of the world’s leading authorities on influenza who created the first genetically engineered vaccine used for the prevention of human disease, died Feb. 21 in Branford. He was 90.

Dr. Kilbourne spent his professional lifetime in the study of infectious diseases, with particular focus on virus infections. His primary contributions were to the understanding of influenza virus structure and genetics, and the practical application of these studies to the development of influenza vaccines and to the understanding of the molecular epidemiology and pathogenesis of influenza.

Dr. Kilbourne created influenza vaccines by recombining new strains with a fast-growing, standard laboratory strain. The new hybrid virus -- which had properties from both parent strains and the desired new antigens, the proteins that create immunization -- would become the prototype for a new vaccine and would be sent back to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and to the Food and Drug Administration. From there it would be sent to vaccine manufacturers. His method became the standard for producing vaccines used in influenza prevention.

As one of the country’s leaders in biomedical science during the latter 20th century, Dr. Kilbourne was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the Association of American Physicians and the American Philosophical Society. Dr. Kilbourne has served on advisory committees to the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research of the FDA. In the late 1970s he developed and chaired a series of published workshops on influenza for the NIH.

Most recently, Dr. Kilbourne, who worked well into his 80s, was collaborating with the pharmaceutical industry on the development and trials of a new, experimental influenza vaccine. The new vaccine, which was keyed to the influenza virus’s neuraminidase enzyme, was designed to provide significantly longer immunity than the 1 to 2 years afforded by current influenza vaccines.

Dr. Kilbourne lived a life as rich and fascinating as it was long. Edwin Dennis Kilbourne was born on July 10, 1920, one of three children of Edwin I. and Elizabeth Alward Kilbourne. Dr. Kilbourne spent his early childhood in the Dominican Republic, where his father, an executive (and later chairman) of the West Indies Sugar Corporation, managed the sprawling Consuelo sugar plantation near San Pedro de Macoris.

After returning to the United States, Dr. Kilbourne graduated from Ridgewood, NJ, High School in 1938, from Cornell University in 1942, and from Cornell Medical College in 1944.

Following a 2-year tour of duty in the United States Army, he joined the staff of the Hospital of the Rockefeller Institute, where he got his earliest first-hand experience in studying human viral disease, especially respiratory ailments. It was at Rockefeller that he became involved in influenza research, which already was a very active field and which was to become his lifelong preoccupation.

After several years at Rockefeller, Dr. Kilbourne went to Tulane Medical School, where he became professor of medicine and director of the Division of Infectious Disease. It was there in New Orleans that Dr. Kilbourne met and married the love of his life, Joy Schmid Kilbourne, who was to be his wife for 58 years.

In 1955 he returned to Cornell where for 14 years he served as professor of public health and director of the Division of Virus Research, leaving in 1969 for Mount Sinai Medical School, where he was the founding chairman of the Department of Microbiology. He was named a Distinguished Service Professor at Mount Sinai, and later continued his research at New York Medical College as a research and emeritus professor.

Dr Kilbourne’s accomplishments were recognized with numerous honors and awards. He received the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Career award in 1961 and was presented with the NIH’s Dyer award in 1973. The following year he received the Borden Award of the Association of Medical Colleges for outstanding research in medical science. In 1977 he was honored by an invitation to give New York City’s Harvey Lecture. In 1979 he was given the Award of Distinction from Cornell Medical College. In 1983 he received the New York Academy of Medicine Award.

An avid writer and student of the English language, Dr. Kilbourne published humorous verse and essays in such publications as The Saturday Review, The Sciences, and the Yale Journal of Humanities in Medicine. His writings were ultimately collected into a book, Strategies of Sex -- And Other Verses to Diversity, Adversity and Perversity.

Dr. Kilbourne also had a deep appreciation of music, and he was a talented songwriter, singer and musician. He was an accomplished tennis player and bowler, and loved fishing and lobstering on the Long Island Sound with his sons and his friends. He was an active member of the Madison Beach Club, where he won the member-member doubles tennis tournament at the age of 84.

Dr. Kilbourne is survived by his wife, Joy, of Madison; a sister and brother-in-law, Sylvia and William Hosie of Northport, New York; a half-sister and brother-in-law, Lynn and Nicholas Norton of North Westchester; four sons, Edwin M. Kilbourne and his wife Barbara of Dunwoody, Georgia; Richard S. Kilbourne of Madison; Christopher N. Kilbourne of Madison; and Paul A. Kilbourne of Branford; and eight grandchildren. He was predeceased by his brother, Dr. Philip A. Kilbourne.

A memorial service is planned for later in the spring.