Dr. Nelson-Rees on cell line contamination, 1994 memoir

  Oral History Interview: 

Dr. Walter Nelson-Rees, formerly associated with the Naval Biological Laboratories in Oakland, California, and the development of a cell bank which was initially contracted with Dr. Stewart Madin which evolved into a facility for both animal and human normal and cancer cell lines.

Oakland, California, December 4, 1994    Interviewer:  Dr. Robert Stevenson, formerly of the National Cancer Institute.

 Nelson-Rees:  And they grow anywhere.  And so there may have not been any need to do anything other than grow them.  And I frankly think that the people who are at fault, more than any others, in the early development stages of cells utilized for research, who led to the problem of contamination, were virologists who simply didn't give a damn what kinds of cells they were growing just so their viruses were being grown.  And the cells they were using, they didn't care what they were.  They were growing their viruses and, from there on they didn't particularly care to characterize cells.

Stevenson:  Just a bag of enzymes.

Nelson-Rees:  Yes.  Just a bag of enzymes, exactly. 

Stevenson:   Well, this is often the case where one discipline utilizes the fruits of another almost contemptuously without regard for all the lore and all of the problems and associated specifications that are extant in the contributing field.  I was straddling these two fields during that period of time and I was acutely aware of this not only ignorance of the problems of cell culture on the part of the virologists but almost the contempt of, you know, why worry about all these things?  Wilton Earle's silicone stoppers and all the elaborate glassware cleaning procedures; what difference does it make?  You know?  Why should we be bothered with this sort of stuff?  The stuff grows our viruses.  Leave it alone.  Don't bother me with all of this stuff.  And it caused a lot of mischief.   https://history.nih.gov/display/history/Nelson-Rees%2C+Walter+1994