Chapter 18: The Strangest Hybrid
Instructions for growing HeLa at home were published in C. L. Stong, “The Amateur Scientist:
How to Perform Experiments with Animal Cells Living in Tissue Culture,” Scientific American,
April 1966.
Sources documenting the history of cell culture research in space include Allan A.
Katzberg, “The Effects of Space Flights on Living Human Cells,” Lectures in Aerospace Medi-
cine, School of Aerospace Medicine (1960); and K. Dickson, “Summary of Biological Space-
flight Experiments with Cells,” ASGSB Bulletin 4, no. 2 (July 1991).
Though the research done on HeLa cells in space was legitimate and useful, we now
know that it was part of a cover-up for a reconnaissance project that involved photographing
the Soviet Union from space. For information on the use of “biological payloads” as cover for
spy missions, see Eye in the Sky: The Story of the Corona Spy Satellites, edited by Dwayne
A. Day et al.
The early paper suggesting the possibility of HeLa contamination is L. Coriell et al.,
“Common Antigens in Tissue Culture Cell Lines,” Science, July 25, 1958. Other resources re-
lated to early concern over culture contamination include L. B. Robinson et al.,
“Contamination of Human Cell Cultures by Pleuropneumonialike Organisms,” Science 124,
no. 3232 (December 7, 1956); R. R. Gurner, R. A. Coombs, and R. Stevenson, “Results of
Tests for the Species of Origins of Cell Lines by Means of the Mixed Agglutination Reaction,”
Experimental Cell Research 28 (September 1962); R. Dulbecco, “Transformation of Cells in
Vitro by Viruses,” Science 142 (November 15, 1963); R. Stevenson, “Cell Culture Collection
Committee in the United States,” in Cancer Cells in Culture, edited by H. Katsuta (1968). For
the history of the ATCC, see R. Stevenson, “Collection, Preservation, Characterization and
Distribution of Cell Cultures,” Proceedings, Symposium on the Characterization and Uses of
Human Diploid Cell Strains: Opatija (1963); and W. Clark and D. Geary, “The Story of the
American Type Culture Collection: Its History and Development (1899–1973),” Advances in
Applied Microbiology 17 (1974).
Important sources on early cell hybrid research include Barski, Sorieul, and Cornefert,
“Production of Cells of a ‘Hybrid’ Nature in Cultures in Vitro of 2 Cellular Strains in Combina-
tion,” Comptes Rendus Hebdoma daires des Séances de l’Académie des Sciences 215
(October 24, 1960); H. Harris and J. F Watkins, “Hybrid Cells Derived from Mouse and Man:
Artificial Heterokaryons of Mammalian Cells from Different Species,” Nature 205 (February
13, 1965); M. Weiss and H. Green, “Human-Mouse Hybrid Cell Lines Containing Partial Com-