My agent, Gail Ross, and my editor at Viking, Wendy Wolf, are two formidable women whom I am lucky to have in my corner. Gail and her partner Howard Yoon turned the enthusiastic wanderings of my mind into a streamlined, compelling book proposal. Their assistant Jennifer Manguera saved me during several crises with crashing and obstreperous versions of the manuscript. Wendy Wolf’s brilliant and precise scalpel turned my rough-edged efforts into a cohesive, meaningful whole, Viking’s staff, including Francesca Belanger, Georgia Bodnar, Victoria Klose, Min Lee, Eric Wechter, and Hilary Roberts, ably dealt with the myriad tasks that finally got the words onto the page.
Leonard Hayflick gave unstintingly of his time, his sharp memories, his talent for lucid explication, and his entrancing ability to recount tales at fifty years’ distance as if they had happened yesterday. In addition to submitting to three dozen interviews, he answered more e-mails than any human being should have to. Without Leonard Hayflick there would have been no story; I am deeply indebted to him. I am also grateful to his late wife, Ruth Hayflick, and his son, Joel Hayflick, who obligingly searched their memories at length and in depth. Joel was also a willing guide to the former Hayflick neighborhood and the onetime site of Leonard Hayflick’s lab on the Stanford campus. Joel also generously shared his genealogical research on the Hayflick family.
Burton and Shulamith Caine, Norman Cohen, and Moselio Schaecter kindly offered their memories of Leonard Hayflick’s youth and young adulthood.
Stanley Plotkin spent many hours being interviewed and literally retracing the steps he took in the 1960s at and around the Wistar Institute and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, even trooping through the rain on one cold March afternoon in an ill-fated effort to find St. Vincent’s Home for Children. (I found the still-standing building several months later, on a warm June evening.) Stanley answered innumerable follow-up questions and patiently explained myriad points of detail. Crucially, he opened to me his hitherto-unplumbed papers. They were essential to the telling of his important story. Stanley and his wife, Susan Plotkin, graciously allowed me to turn their sunroom into a makeshift archive in this effort. I am deeply grateful.
Steve and Mary Wenzler opened their hearts, their home, and their memories of their beloved son Stephen. Mary particularly gave of her time and recollections, despite the pain renewed by my many questions about Stephen’s life. Chip and Betsy MacConnell did the same in recounting the brief life of their precious daughter Anna and in providing many medical records, photos, and memories. To both of these couples I am deeply grateful. Danielle MacConnell also helpfully shared her memories of her sister. Janet Gilsdorf went several extra miles to help track down Anna’s medical records. Pamela Ryan, Nancy O’Donnell, and Kathy Earp kindly gave their time helping me to understand Stephen Wenzler as a boy and a man.
Fran Scalise, Dee Krewson, and one anonymous woman generously shared their memories of living through months of pregnancy and through childbirth at St. Vincent’s Hospital for Women and Children. Sisters Rosa Hoflacher and Mary Thérèse Hasson of the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood kindly recalled their time at the St. Vincent’s Home for Children; the Mother House in Reading, Pennsylvania, generously provided a bed. In Hamburg, Pennsylvania, Pat Pitkin offered guidance and Janet Barr and Francis Muller went out of their way to be helpful.
Leonard Warren graciously shared his lengthy, deeply researched history of the Wistar Institute. Edward Hooper made available a key World Health Organization document and otherwise-unobtainable records of polio vaccine testing of newborns at Clinton Farms. Paul Offit allowed me to use his irreplaceable interviews with Maurice Hilleman. He also shared his vaccine expertise and his support as a fellow book writer. Daniel Wilson kindly provided the transcript of his 1990 interview with Dorothy Horstmann. Frank Simione at the American Type Culture Collection willingly tracked down key historical documents and information; at the Coriell Institute for Medical Research, Christine Beiswanger was equally helpful, as was Howard Garrison at the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. At the University of California at Davis, Scott Simon offered his statistics expertise. David Segal, Amy Swift, and Narisu Narisu went out of their way to probe the genetic underpinnings of WI-38.
I am deeply grateful to the following scientists for their expert help and the gift of their time reviewing sections of the manuscript: Margaret Burgess, Francis Collins, Ahmad Fayaz, Carol Greider, Julie Ledgerwood, Leonard Norkin, Gary Stein, Stanley Plotkin, Werner Slenczka, Jack Szostak, Harold Varmus, Woodring Wright, and Bill Wunner. Stanley Gartler generously reviewed the entire manuscript and offered timely, incisive comments. Wudan Yan was a first-rate fact-checker. Any errors in the book are mine alone.
John F. O’Neill helped me understand the serious challenges of pediatric eye surgery in the early 1960s and the devastating effects of rubella on fetal and newborn eyes. Maggi Buterbaugh kindly spoke with me about her experience as the parent of a child affected by congenital rubella. Rugang Zhang explained the importance of WI-38 cells in research today; his colleagues at the Wistar Institute, Hildegund Ertl and Meenhard Herlyn, were gracious and informative hosts. Virginia Berwick, Richard Carp, Barbara Cohen, Vittorio Defendi, William Elkins, Anthony Girardi, Fred Jacks, Anne Kamrin, Betsy Meredith, Paul Moorhead, Jim Poupard, the late Robert Roosa, Eero Saksela, and Kaighn Smith shared their memories of science and life at the Wistar Institute and the University of Pennsylvania in the 1950s and 1960s. Jim Poupard completed his recollections with a full walking tour of the grounds where Philadelphia General Hospital once stood. All of these people were generous with their time, and I am grateful to every one of them.
Nancy Pleibel kindly shared her time, her technical expertise, and her memories of the Hayflick lab both at the Wistar and at Stanford. Robert Stevenson helped me with his expertise about the history of cell culture, the NIH in the 1960s, and the NIH contract that funded the production of WI-38. Paul Parkman helpfully recounted developing the HPV-77 rubella vaccine and working with Roderick Murray in the Division of Biologic Standards; John Finlayson also remembered the 1960s-era DBS. Richard Dugas and Nicholas Wade shared their memories of James Schriver and his investigation of Leonard Hayflick.
Suresh Jadhav at the Serum Institute of India was consistently helpful. Alan Shaw, who for fifteen years steered the making of live virus vaccines at Merck, patiently answered many nuts-and-bolts questions about vaccine making. Philip Provost recalled developing Merck’s hepatitis A vaccine. Pamela Eisele in media relations at Merck was unfailingly helpful; Colleen Lange, Michael Lynn, Vic Johnston, and other experts involved with making the rubella vaccine at Merck’s West Point campus shared hours of their time. I am grateful to all of them, as I am to Gwynne Oosterbaan at GlaxoSmithKline, who gamely tracked down the seemingly long-lost facts from the history of the Cendehill vaccine, and to Sean Clements at Sanofi Pasteur.
I am also grateful to Debi Vinnedge for sharing her story, her wide-ranging knowledge, her correspondence with the Vatican, and her perspective. She was unfailingly cordial, prompt, and incredibly thorough.
In Sweden Lisa Tallroth provided outstanding research assistance and translation. She and her husband, Erik Tallroth, kindly hosted me in their home, cheerfully and despite their duties with work and three small children. Erling Norrby was an attentive and fascinating guide to Swedish science; his persistence allowed me to gain entry to the former monkey house. There Crucell Sweden’s Agneta Strömberg was a helpful and gracious host.
Erling’s insights helped me to understand Sven Gard and the scene in his lab in the early 1960s, as did the thoughtful recollections of Margareta Böttiger. Eva Herrström’s memories were hugely helpful, as was her generous sharing of her diaries and her photos from the Gard lab. Elisabeth, Håkan, and Lars Ernholm kindly provided hospitality, transportation, and fascinating recollections of their aunt, Eva Ernholm, as did Osborne Carlson. Elisabeth helpfully dug out Eva’s photos, work records, and news
clippings. Solveig Jülich, Lena Lennerhed, Niels Lynöe, and Jane Reichel shared their knowledge of Swedish abortion law, politics, and policy in the midtwentieth century. Georg and Eva Klein recalled their colleague and friend Hilary Koprowski. Their colleagues at the Karolinska Institute, Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren and Sabina Bossi, made me welcome. Petter Byström offered additional help with translation.
I’m indebted to many archivists and librarians. I would like in particular to thank the dedicated experts at the University Archives and Records Center at the University of Pennsylvania and at the National Library of Medicine; David Baugh at the Philadelphia City Archive; Shawn Weldon at the Philadelphia Archdiocesan Historical Research Center; Richard Mandel, the archivist for the Executive Secretariat at the National Institutes of Health; Barbara Faye Harkin in the Office of NIH History; Michael Horvath at the Karolinska Institute; Daniel Hartwig at Stanford University; Greg Lester, Nina Long, and April Miller, all formerly of the Wistar Institute, and Jennifer Evans Stacey, who works there now. Caroline Brogan at the Lancet kindly dug out many decades-old papers. Christopher Koprowski willingly and cheerfully recalled his father, Hilary Koprowski, and family history. He gamely tried to find his father’s scientific correspondence, the whereabouts of which remain unknown. Sue Jones also did her best to help in this endeavor.
My brilliant brother-in-law David Weih rendered crucial calculations when my rusty math skills failed me. Leslie Smith provided invaluable help formatting the manuscript. The excellent graphic designer Lynne Smyers generously donated her time and talent preparing the book’s photos for submission. Sarah Kellogg kindly spent tens of hours helping to compile and organize the photos. Sarah, Leslie Smith, and my other dear friends Ruth Barzel and Katie Smith Milway read the manuscript, as did my hugely supportive sister, Andrea Wadman. I am deeply grateful to each of them for their thoughtful, incisive feedback and for their unfailing faith in me and my project. Helen Pearson, then my editor at Nature, immediately understood my compelling interest in the story of the WI-38 cells and ably guided the magazine feature that eventually grew into this book. She has since become a loyal book-writing colleague and wise friend. Alex Witze and Chris Leonard also offered strength and wisdom from the writerly trenches, as did Sarah Kellogg. Other far-flung friends and family too numerous to name have asked enthusiastically about the book over these many months; their interest and support too have kept me going.
My mother, Barbara Greenfield Wadman, and my late father, Hamilton Wadman, believed in me, loved me, and taught me a great deal about medicine and life. Their belief in the power of medicine to do good and their compassion for the poor, the unlucky, and the forgotten set me on the path to writing this book. No words can express my gratitude for their love and support, and for that of my sister Andrea Wadman.
My sons Bobby and Christopher Wells put up with many dinner-table conversations about cells and vaccines and offered finely honed teenage wisdom on several matters in these pages. I thank them for tolerating and even cheering on my commitment to this book, and for forgiving me when my motherly duties fell by the wayside. Tim Wells, my husband, fellow voyager, and friend, gave me the quiet support of a man of few words—and the inspiring example of the most serious, disciplined, and committed writer I know.
NOTES
In the following notes, certain documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act are referenced using the followng titles: Factual Chronology, Hayflick Rebuttal to Schriver Report, Riseberg Memo, Schriver Report, and Schriver Rebuttal to Hayflick Rebuttal. Full citations for these documents are in the Selected Bibliography.
Epigraph
Helen Keller, The Open Door (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1957), 31.
Prologue
1. Quoted in William A. Clark and Dorothy H. Geary, “The Story of the American Type Culture Collection: Its History and Development (1899–1973),” Advances in Applied Microbiology 17 (1974): 295.
2. Pathological Laboratory Autopsy Report, Philadelphia General Hospital, autopsy no. 74681, February 21, 1966, Post Mortem Records, vol. 465 (January 18–April 8, 1966), Collection 80-101.24, City Archives, City of Philadelphia Department of Records.
3. Leonard B. Seeff et al., “A Serologic Follow-up of the 1942 Epidemic of Post-vaccination Hepatitis in the United States Army,” New England Journal of Medicine 316 (1987): 965–70.
4. Neal Nathanson and Alexander Langmuir, “The Cutter Incident: Poliomyelitis Following Formaldehyde-Inactivated Poliovirus Vaccination in the United States During the Spring of 1955 II: The Relationship of Poliomyelitis to Cutter Vaccine,” American Journal of Hygiene 78 (1963): 39; Paul A. Offit, “The Cutter Incident, 50 Years Later,” New England Journal of Medicine 352 (2005): 1411.
5. David M. Oshinsky, Polio: An American Story (New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005), 238.
6. The description of the launch of WI-38 is taken from personal interviews with Leonard Hayflick listed in the bibliography including, especially, a telephone interview on July 1, 2013.
7. The number of U.S. recruits vaccinated from October 2011 through November 2015 (826,317) was provided by the Defense Press Office in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense; for the number vaccinated between 1971 and 1999, some 8.5 million, see: CNA Analysis and Solutions, Population Representation in the Military Services: Fiscal Year 2014 Summary Report, Appendix D, Table D–4 (Washington, DC: Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, 2014), https://www.cna.org/pop-rep/2014/appendixd/d_04.html; several hundred thousand U.S. recruits also received adenovirus vaccine made in WI-38 cells during testing of the vaccine in the mid- and late-1960s: see: “Conference on Cell Cultures for Virus Vaccine Production Nov. 6–8 1967, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland,” NCI Monographs, no. 29 (1968), 499.
8. Nicholas Wade, “Hayflick’s Tragedy: The Rise and Fall of a Human Cell Line,” Science 194, no. 4235 (1976): 125.
9. For an illuminating analysis of this era, see David J. Rothman, Strangers at the Bedside: A History of How Law and Bioethics Transformed Medical Decision Making (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1991, 2003), 30–50.
10. See for example Marcia Angell, “Medical Research: The Dangers to the Human Subjects,” New York Review of Books 62, no. 18 (November 19, 2015): 50.
11. Henry K. Beecher, “Ethics and Clinical Research,” New England Journal of Medicine 274, no. 24 (1966): 1354–60.
12. William H. Stewart, “Surgeon General’s Directives on Human Experimentation,” PPO #129 (Bethesda, MD: US Public Health Service, revised July 1, 1966), https://history.nih.gov/research/downloads/Surgeongeneraldirective1966.pdf.
13. See, for instance, Angell, “Medical Research,” 48–51; and Marcia Angell, “Medical Research on Humans: Making It Ethical,” New York Review of Books 62, no. 19 (December 3, 2015): 30–32.
14. World Health Organization, “Situation Report: Zika Virus Microcephaly Guillain-Barré Syndrome, July 7, 2016,” 7.
Chapter One: Beginnings
1. Nicole Krauss, The History of Love (New York: W. W. Norton, 2006), 11.
2. Maxwell Whiteman, “Philadelphia’s Jewish Neighborhoods,” in The Peoples of Philadelphia: A History of Ethnic Groups and Lower-Class Life, 1790–1940, Allen F. Davis and Mark H. Haller, eds. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1973), 250; Richard A. Varbero, “Philadelphia’s South Italians in the 1920s,” in Peoples of Philadelphia, Davis and Haller, eds., 260–61.
3. “13th US Federal Census (1910) ED 71, Sh. 3B, line 4: Res. 411 Lombard St., Phila. PA,” cited at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jhayflick/ps08/ps08_281.htm; Mark H. Haller, “Recurring Themes,” in Peoples of Philadelphia, Davis and Haller, eds., 283–84.
4. John F. Sutherland, “Housing the Poor,” in Peoples of Philadelphia, Davis and Haller, eds., 184–85.
5. Dennis J. Clark, “The Philadelphia Irish: Persistant Prese
nce,” in Peoples of Philadelphia, Davis and Haller, eds.; Whiteman “Jewish Neighborhoods,” in ibid, 242.
6. John M. Barry, The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History (New York: Viking Penguin, 2004), 326.
7. Roger D. Simon, “Great Depression,” The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, http://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/great-depression/ (reprinted and adapted from Roger D. Simon, “Philadelphia During the Great Depression, 1929–1941,” Historical Society of Pennsylvania, “Closed for Business: The Story of Bankers Trust During the Great Depression” http://www.hsp.org/bankers-trust).
8. Philadelphia County Relief Board, Office Manual of the Philadelphia County Relief Board, August 1934, section V, page 1, Temple University Urban Archive, Jewish Family Service, series 4, box 7, volume 16.
9. Simon, “Great Depression.”
10. Leonard Hayflick, telephone interview with the author, March 23, 2014.
11. Vincent J. Cristofalo, “Profile in Gerontology: Leonard Hayflick, PhD,” Contemporary Gerontology 9, no. 3 (2003): 86.
12. Leonard Hayflick, interview with the author, October 3, 2012.
13. Leonard Hayflick, telephone interview with the author, March 31, 2014.
14. Ibid.
Chapter Two: Discovery
1. D. Ivanovsky, 1892. “Concerning the Mosaic Disease of the Tobacco Plant,” St. Petsb. Acad. Imp. Sci. Bul. 35 (1892): 67–70. Cited in Alice Lustig and Arnold J. Levine, “One Hundred Years of Virology,” Journal of Virology 66, no. 8 (August 1992): 4629–31.
2. M. W. Beijerinck, “Concerning a Contagium Vivum Fluidum as a Cause of the Spot-Disease of Tobacco Leaves,” Verh. Akad. Wet. Amsterdam 2, no. 6 (1898): 3–21. This is the third reference in Lustig and Levine, “One Hundred Years of Virology.”
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