The immortality of cancer cells

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Can cells live forever?

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The immortality of cancer cells

Leonard Hayflick Scientist

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41. The world's first live virus vaccine	93	00:35
42. Jonas Salk	104	00:43
43. Creating sterile rooms	58	01:43
44. 'The golden era of virology'	62	02:43
45. The early days of cytogenetics	59	02:04
46. Working with cancer-causing viruses	77	02:05
47. Studies of normal human tissue	87	01:18
48. The immortality of cancer cells	131	01:55
49. Can cells live forever?	148	01:15
50. How to isolate your own cells	86	02:28

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Before I go beyond this point, there are two other things that I need to mention in context of the time relationships and I'll return to this experiment that I just described in a moment. The first important point is that by this time, my third child, daughter, Susan Hayflick, was born and when I went... I had arranged with the obstetrician to obtain the placenta at the birth of this daughter for the purpose of culturing the amniotic amnion tissue, which by this time was known to grow fairly well in cell culture and had also been known to sometimes undergo a very important phenomenon called 'transformation'. By that it is meant, at least at that time it was meant – today the term has become corrupted to a point where you don't know what it means unless you query the user of the world – at that time it meant the acquisition by a cultured cell thought to be normal of cancer cell properties, including the key property of immortality, namely the ability to see the cell capable of cultivation continuously.

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.

Title: The immortality of cancer cells

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: Susan Hayflick

Duration: 1 minute, 55 seconds

Date story recorded: July 2011

Date story went live: 08 August 2012