My recollection is that this, as it later turned out, the awarding of this contract occurred, I believe, a month or two before I decided to develop WI-38, which caused a bit of a problem, because as events later developed one might ask the question whether WI-38 was developed under that contract? The answer is, in my opinion, no. Others have different opinions. In any case, I'll return to that issue later.
So we found ourselves now during a period, in the middle and late '60s, when great activity was going on worldwide in vaccine production, and I recall going to several meetings in Washington, the Pan American Health Organisation, and WHO meetings. The World Health Organization sponsored a trip that they wanted me to make to Czechoslovakia, Russia, Moscow, Leningrad, and especially to Moscow, where I spent two months teaching the Russian researchers how to prepare vaccines in WI-38. So this fermentation activity was going on. There were, of course, many people from industrial laboratories who were invited to my laboratory to learn the technique on-site. These are just examples of the kinds of activities I was involved with in the mid to later 60s. I've not said anything yet, but of course I must say something about, or as much about this, subsequently, and that is the impact that this observation had on the field of gerontology, or ageing. I have not forgotten that, obviously, but I will return to it subsequently.