Chapter 13: The HeLa Factory
For further reading on the history of the polio vaccine, see The Virus and the Vaccine, by
Debbie Bookchin and Jim Shumacher; Polio: An American Story, by David M. Oshinski;
Splendid Solution: Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio, by Jeffrey Kluger; and The Cutter
Incident: How America’s First Polio Vaccine Led to the Growing Crisis in Vaccines, by Paul
Offit.
Details of the initial growth of poliovirus using HeLa cells, and the subsequent develop-
ment of shipping methods, is documented in letters housed at the AMCMA and the March of
Dimes Archives, as well as in J. Syverton, W. Scherer, and G. O. Gey, “Studies on the
Propagation in Vitro of Poliomyelitis Virus,” Journal of Experimental Medicine 97, no. 5 (May
1, 1953).
The history of the HeLa mass production facilities at Tuskegee is documented in letters,
expense reports, and other documents at the March of Dimes Archives. For a comprehensive
overview, see Russell W. Brown and James H. M. Henderson, “The Mass Production and
Distribution of HeLa Cells at the Tuskegee Institute, 1953–55,” Journal of the History of Medi-
cine 38 (1983).
A detailed history of many scientific advances that followed the growth of HeLa can be
found in letters and other papers in the AMCA and TCAA. The book Culturing Life: How Cells
Became Technologies, by Han nah Lan decker, provides a comprehensive overview. Many of
the scientific papers referred to in this chapter are collected in Readings in Mammalian Cell
Culture, edited by Robert Pollack, including H. Eagle, “Nutrition Needs of Mammalian Cells in
Tissue Culture,” Science 122 (1955): 501–4; T T. Puck and P. I. Marcus, “A Rapid Method for
Viable Cell Titration and Clone Production with HeLa Cells in Tissue Culture: The Use of X-
irradiated Cells to Study Conditioning Factors,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sci-
ence 41 (1955); J. H. Tjio and A. Levan, “The Chromosome Number of Man,” Cytogenics 42
(January 26, 1956). See also M. J. Kottler, “From 48 to 46: Cytological Technique, Precon-
ception, and the Counting of Human Chromosomes,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 48,
no. 4 (1974); H. E. Swim, “Microbiological Aspects of Tissue Culture,” Annual Review of Mi-
crobiology 13 (1959); J. Craigie, “Survival and Preservation of Tumors in the Frozen State,”
Advanced Cancer Research 2 (1954); W. Scherer and A. Hoo gasian, “Preservation at Sub-
zero Temperatures of Mouse Fibroblasts (Strain L) and Human Epithelial Cells (Strain HeLa),”
Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine 87, no. 2 (1954); T. C.
Hsu, “Mammalian Chromosomes in Vitro: The Karyotype of Man,” Journal of Heredity 43