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Lessons unlearned

Pictures of spreads from New Scientist magazine

THE name of William Nelson-Rees is enough to strike terror into the hearts of many older US biomedical researchers. Throughout the 1970s, he pursued a curious but highly effective crusade. Cell cultures, it had just been found, could be ruined by contamination with fast-growing cells. Nelson-Rees made it his mission to unearth cell lines that had been spoilt.

He exposed dozens of cases where researchers, even in prestigious labs, had failed to authenticate their cells and so published meaningless work estimated to have cost more than $10 million. His campaign, which was vitriolic and generated massive bad feeling, derailed careers and tainted labs.

A bizarre career choice perhaps, but Nelson-Rees's reasoning was sound. Cell cultures were (and still are) a mainstay for testing vaccines, studying cancer and much more. He reasoned that researchers who did not check their cells were wasting money, holding back progress and producing potentially dangerous results. ...



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