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The Wistar Institute

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The transition from cells to bacteria
Leonard Hayflick Scientist
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The teaching was relatively simple, because all of the techniques used in bacteriology or microbiology are identical to the ones that are used in cell culture, the only difference is that you're working with cells and not bacteria, and, of course, cells are much bigger than bacteria. In any case that made the transition very simple in a matter of days. And I started to grow chick egg... chick embryo tissue in cell culture and to work with those cells in which I had introduced... I'm slipping on the term, because at that time they were called PPLO, or pleuropneumonia-like organisms, today they're called 'mycoplasmas', and that's, of course, what I was working with.

Leonard Hayflick (b. 1928), the recipient of several research prizes and awards, including the 1991 Sandoz Prize for Gerontological Research, is known for his research in cell biology, virus vaccine development, and mycoplasmology. He also has studied the ageing process for more than thirty years. Hayflick is known for discovering that human cells divide for a limited number of times in vitro (refuting the contention by Alexis Carrel that normal body cells are immortal), which is known as the Hayflick limit, as well as developing the first normal human diploid cell strains for studies on human ageing and for research use throughout the world. He also made the first oral polio vaccine produced in a continuously propogated cell strain - work which contributed to significant virus vaccine development.

Listeners: Christopher Sykes

Christopher Sykes is a London-based television producer and director who has made a number of documentary films for BBC TV, Channel 4 and PBS.

Tags: bacteriology, microbiology, cell culture, chick embryo tissue, cells, bacteria, PPLO, mycoplasms

Duration: 46 seconds

Date story recorded: July 2011

Date story went live: 08 August 2012