Chapter 27: The Secret of Immortality
For more on Jeremy Rifkin’s lawsuits, see Foundation on Economic Trends et al. v. Otis R.
Bowen et al. (No. 87–3393) and Foundation on Economic Trends et al. v. Margaret M. Heck-
ler, Secretary of the Department of Health & Human Services et al. (756 F.2d 143). For media
reports on the case, see Susan Okie, “Suit Filed Against Tests Using AIDS Virus Genes; En-
vironmental Impact Studies Requested,” Washington Post, December 16, 1987; and William
Booth, “Of Mice, Oncogenes and Rifkin,” Science 239, no. 4838 (January 22, 1988).
For the HeLa species debate, see L. Van Valen, “HeLa, a New Microbial Species,” Evolu-
tionary Theory 10, no. 2 (1991).
For more on cell immortality, see L. Hayflick and P. S. Moorhead, “The Serial Cultivation
of Human Diploid Cell Strains,” Experimental Cell Research, 25 (1961); L. Hayflick, “The Lim-
ited in Vitro Lifetime of Human Diploid Cell Strains,” Experimental Cell Research 37 (1965);
G. B. Morin, “The Human Telomere Terminal Transferase Enzyme Is a Ribonucleoprotein
That Synthesizes TTAGGG Repeats,” Cell 59 (1989); C. B. Harley, A. B. Futcher, and C. W
Greider, “Telomeres Shorten During Ageing of Human Fibroblasts,” Nature 345 (May 31,
1990); C. W Greider and E. H. Blackburn, “Identification of Specific Telomere Terminal Trans-
ferase Activity in Tetrahymena Extracts,” Cell 43 (December 1985).
For further reading on research into aging and human life extension, see Stephen S. Hall’s
Merchants of Immortality.
For a selection of HPV research involving HeLa cells, see Michael Boshart et al., “A New
Type of Papillomavirus DNA, Its Presence in Genital Cancer Biopsies and in Cell Lines De-
rived from Cervical Cancer,” EMBO Journal 3, no. 5 (1984); R. A. Jesudasan et al.,
“Rearrangement of Chromosome Band nqi3 in HeLa Cells,” Anticancer Research 14 (1994);
N. C. Popescu et al., “Integration Sites of Human Papillomavirus 18 DNA Sequences on HeLa
Cell Chromosomes,” Cytogenetics and Cell Genetics 44 (1987); and E. S. Srivatsan et al.,
“Loss of Heterozygosity for Alleles on Chromosome 11 in Cervical Carcinoma,” American
Journal of Human Genetics 49 (1991).