Stanley Gartler
Encyclopedia
Stanley Michael Gartler (born June 9, 1923) is a cell and molecular biologist and human geneticist
. He was the first scientist to offer conclusive evidence for the clonality of human cancers. He and Walter Nelson-Rees
identified that HeLa
cells had contaminated many cell lines thought to be unique. Stanley Gartler is currently Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Genome Sciences at the University of Washington
.
, California in 1923 of Romanian immigrant parents. He attended public school in Los Angeles and completed two years at university (UCLA) before enlisting in the Army Air Force during World War II
. He was a radio operator machine gunner and flew combat missions with the 9th Air Force. After the war, on the G.I. Bill, he completed his undergraduate education at UCLA and entered the Ph.D. program in Genetics at UC Berkeley. He originally thought of applying genetics to agricultural work, but near the end of his graduate work he made a career switch and decided to enter the field of human genetics. In 1952 he received a public health postdoctoral fellowship and spent five years at Columbia University
studying human genetics. In 1957 Gartler was recruited by Arno G. Motulsky to join his newly established Division of Medical genetics in the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington
in Seattle. He was a founding member of the Department of Genetics at the University of Washington in 1959. Stanley became a professor emeritus in 1993.
(G6PD) locus in heterozygous women, Gartler and Linder demonstrated that leiomyoma
tumor cells, even from cancers consisting of billions of cells, expressed only one form the marker, whereas even small patches of normal tissue contained cells expressing both forms of the marker. This finding was consistent with the growth of a single founder cell into a tumor. The clonal origin of tumors has been confirmed many times since, initially through the work of Philip J. Fialkow.
In 1967, Gartler was interested in establishing a system for studying human genetics in somatic cell culture
. He initially collected eighteen (supposedly) independently derived established human cell lines, including HeLa
. Examining isoenzymes, he typed them for a number of genetic polymorphisms, including the X linked G6PD variant. The cell lines turned out to be genetically identical, and further, all carried the G6PD allele found almost exclusively in people of African descent. HeLa, the first successfully established human cell line, was derived from a woman of African descent named Henrietta Lacks
, so this result suggested that the cell lines were not truly independent, but had been contaminated by HeLa cells.
It was not realized at the time that nearly all attempts to establish human cell cultures resulted in cell lines with limited life spans. Dr. George Gey, the originator of HeLa, had sent his cells to all who requested them, and this problem arose because many workers were growing the immortal HeLa cell and mortal human cell strains in the same lab. Since the use of genetic markers to characterize and distinguish cell lines at the time was virtually non-existent, contamination by HeLa went undetected. In spite of the evidence, initially, the idea of laboratory errors leading to cross culture contamination was not universally accepted: an alternative explanation was that, when cultures became established, their G6PD phenotype changed. This idea was invalidated when Nellie Auesperg and Gartler found a truly independently established human cell line, which demonstrated unique genetic markers. Cross culture contamination is now a generally accepted risk, and there are many genetic markers available to accurately characterize human cell cultures. However, the problem of cross culture contamination has not disappeared. Walter Nelson-Rees
took up the issue some ten years after the original Gartler report, and continued to write about the problem for almost 25 years.
Geneticist
A geneticist is a biologist who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a researcher or lecturer. Some geneticists perform experiments and analyze data to interpret the inheritance of skills. A geneticist is also a Consultant or...
. He was the first scientist to offer conclusive evidence for the clonality of human cancers. He and Walter Nelson-Rees
Walter Nelson-Rees
Walter Nelson-Rees was a cell culture worker and cytogeneticist who helped expose the problem of cross-contamination of cell lines. Nelson-Rees used chromosome banding to show that many immortal cell lines, previously thought to be unique, were actually HeLa cell lines...
identified that HeLa
HeLa
A HeLa cell is a cell type in an immortal cell line used in scientific research. It is the oldest and most commonly used human cell line. The line was derived from cervical cancer cells taken on February 8, 1951 from Henrietta Lacks, a patient who eventually died of her cancer on October 4, 1951...
cells had contaminated many cell lines thought to be unique. Stanley Gartler is currently Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Genome Sciences at the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
.
Biography
Gartler was born in Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California in 1923 of Romanian immigrant parents. He attended public school in Los Angeles and completed two years at university (UCLA) before enlisting in the Army Air Force during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He was a radio operator machine gunner and flew combat missions with the 9th Air Force. After the war, on the G.I. Bill, he completed his undergraduate education at UCLA and entered the Ph.D. program in Genetics at UC Berkeley. He originally thought of applying genetics to agricultural work, but near the end of his graduate work he made a career switch and decided to enter the field of human genetics. In 1952 he received a public health postdoctoral fellowship and spent five years at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
studying human genetics. In 1957 Gartler was recruited by Arno G. Motulsky to join his newly established Division of Medical genetics in the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
in Seattle. He was a founding member of the Department of Genetics at the University of Washington in 1959. Stanley became a professor emeritus in 1993.
Work
In 1965, Stanley Gartler and David Linder were able to demonstrate clonality of tumors in human females using an event (X chromosome inactivation) that occurs early in development in mammalian females. X chromosome inactivation randomly silences most of the genes on one of the two X chromosomes in every cell of the embryo. The female thus becomes a mosaic for any X-linked gene for which she is heterozygous, and normal tissues are therefore composed of a nearly equal mixture of cells expressing the two different phenotypes. However, if a tumor begins from a single cell, then all the cells of the tumor should express the same X-linked allele. By examining expression of different isoenzymes of the sex-linked glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenaseGlucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase
Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase is a cytosolic enzyme in the pentose phosphate pathway , a metabolic pathway that supplies reducing energy to cells by maintaining the level of the co-enzyme nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate...
(G6PD) locus in heterozygous women, Gartler and Linder demonstrated that leiomyoma
Leiomyoma
A leiomyoma is a benign smooth muscle neoplasm that is not premalignant. They can occur in any organ, but the most common forms occur in the uterus, small bowel and the esophagus.- Etymology:* Greek:** λεῖος leios "smooth"...
tumor cells, even from cancers consisting of billions of cells, expressed only one form the marker, whereas even small patches of normal tissue contained cells expressing both forms of the marker. This finding was consistent with the growth of a single founder cell into a tumor. The clonal origin of tumors has been confirmed many times since, initially through the work of Philip J. Fialkow.
In 1967, Gartler was interested in establishing a system for studying human genetics in somatic cell culture
Cell culture
Cell culture is the complex process by which cells are grown under controlled conditions. In practice, the term "cell culture" has come to refer to the culturing of cells derived from singlecellular eukaryotes, especially animal cells. However, there are also cultures of plants, fungi and microbes,...
. He initially collected eighteen (supposedly) independently derived established human cell lines, including HeLa
HeLa
A HeLa cell is a cell type in an immortal cell line used in scientific research. It is the oldest and most commonly used human cell line. The line was derived from cervical cancer cells taken on February 8, 1951 from Henrietta Lacks, a patient who eventually died of her cancer on October 4, 1951...
. Examining isoenzymes, he typed them for a number of genetic polymorphisms, including the X linked G6PD variant. The cell lines turned out to be genetically identical, and further, all carried the G6PD allele found almost exclusively in people of African descent. HeLa, the first successfully established human cell line, was derived from a woman of African descent named Henrietta Lacks
Henrietta Lacks
Henrietta Lacks was an African-American woman who was the unwitting source of cells from her cancerous tumor, which were cultured by George Otto Gey to create an immortal cell line for medical research...
, so this result suggested that the cell lines were not truly independent, but had been contaminated by HeLa cells.
It was not realized at the time that nearly all attempts to establish human cell cultures resulted in cell lines with limited life spans. Dr. George Gey, the originator of HeLa, had sent his cells to all who requested them, and this problem arose because many workers were growing the immortal HeLa cell and mortal human cell strains in the same lab. Since the use of genetic markers to characterize and distinguish cell lines at the time was virtually non-existent, contamination by HeLa went undetected. In spite of the evidence, initially, the idea of laboratory errors leading to cross culture contamination was not universally accepted: an alternative explanation was that, when cultures became established, their G6PD phenotype changed. This idea was invalidated when Nellie Auesperg and Gartler found a truly independently established human cell line, which demonstrated unique genetic markers. Cross culture contamination is now a generally accepted risk, and there are many genetic markers available to accurately characterize human cell cultures. However, the problem of cross culture contamination has not disappeared. Walter Nelson-Rees
Walter Nelson-Rees
Walter Nelson-Rees was a cell culture worker and cytogeneticist who helped expose the problem of cross-contamination of cell lines. Nelson-Rees used chromosome banding to show that many immortal cell lines, previously thought to be unique, were actually HeLa cell lines...
took up the issue some ten years after the original Gartler report, and continued to write about the problem for almost 25 years.
Honors
- U.S. Public Health Service Career Development Award
- U.S. Public Health Service Career Award
- NIH Merit Scholar
- Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of ScienceAmerican Association for the Advancement of ScienceThe American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
- President, American Society of Human GeneticsAmerican Society of Human GeneticsThe American Society of Human Genetics , founded in 1948, is the primary professional membership organization for specialists in human genetics worldwide. As of 2009, the organization had approximately 8,000 members...
- Honorary Fellow, American College of Medical GeneticsAmerican College of Medical GeneticsThe American College of Medical Genetics is an organization composed of biochemical, clinical, cytogenetic, medical and molecular geneticists, genetic counselors and other health care professionals committed to the practice of medical genetics....
- Member, National Academy of SciencesUnited States National Academy of SciencesThe National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...