George Otto Gey
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George Otto Gey (July 6, 1899 – November 8, 1970) was the scientist who propagated the HeLa cell line. His name was pronounced "guy".
He was born in Pennsylvania, and both his parents were born in Germany. He received his undergraduate degree at the University of Pittsburgh in 1921 and then taught zoology there. Around 1926 he married Margaret K. (1900-1989), who was from Wisconsin. By 1930 they were living on Saint Paul Street in Baltimore, and in the 1950s they started the Tissue Culture Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University. Using a sample from the cervix of Henrietta Lacks provided by Jake Shapiro, he propagated her cells into an immortalized human cell line.
[edit] References
- Fedoroff, S. (1971). George Otto Gey. 1899-1970. Anat Rec 171(1): 127-128.
- Hanks, J. H. and F. B. Bang (1971). Dr. George Otto Gey 1899-1970. In Vitro 6(4): 3-4.
- Harvey, A. M. (1975). Johns Hopkins, the birthplace of tissue culture: the story of Ross G. Harrison
- Warren Y. Lewis, and George O. Gey. Johns Hopkins Med J 136(3): 142-149.
- Jones, H. W., Jr., V. A. McKusick, et al. (1971). George Otto Gey (1899-1970). The HeLa cell and a reappraisal of its origin. Obstet Gynecol 38(6): 945-949.
