We thought we would add something new, personal and interesting to the IVR. We sent out emails to people asking them:
“I am writing a small quarterly column including a short statement, one or two sentences, describing how “we” all ended up in this business. What was the one deciding factor that made you turn to “the in vitro side”?
Would you be willing to share something like that? It can be anonymous or not but would really help make the IVR a lot more interesting.”
Here are some responses:
Valerie Pence:
I was interested in plant development, and my graduate school advisor was working with crown gall tumors. He was interested in the developmental biology of the tumors and was using tissue culture as a tool for studying their growth and responses. Although I found the project interesting, I found that I liked the in vitro aspects more than the other parts of the project. When I finished, I was fortunate to get post-doctoral positions that dealt with in vitro propagation and the growth of cells in vitro for physiological studies. I’ve been even more fortunate to have employment working with in vitro growth in a number of different species, which keeps things interesting!
Greg Phillips:
I became fascinated with totipotency, and challenge of getting recalcitrant plant species to regenerate plants from cells and tissues in culture.
Troy Meyers:
In my case, I ended up with what I thought was a “lost species” of orchid, where the type specimen had died and no one had ever seen another. I felt obligated to propagate it by seed since it seemed to no longer be in cultivation. Because the seed labs I contacted were dubious about the genus Coryanthes, I thought I better also try to learn myself.After the long process of learning the techniques (and trials with other orchid seed prior to the subject capsule actually maturing) I realized that I ought to share what I learned, and the equipment I’d accumulated, by opening up as a orchid species conservation flasking service. I sure didn’t know that’s what would happen when I started.
Dennis Laska:
While attending the Pennsylvania State University I enrolled in a cell and tissue culture course offered through the veterinary science department and became fascinated with the prospects of growing functional cells outside a living organism. The instructor Dr. William Patton, a long standing Tissue Culture Association member, offered me a brochure which contained a student membership application to the TCA. I remember receiving my first Society newsletter and hoping upon graduation that my career in biology would involve cell and tissue culture. Following graduation I was fortunate enough to obtain an interview for a laboratory technician position at the University of Pittsburgh. The position was offered to me because I had experience in cell and tissue culture. A few years later I had the opportunity to join a laboratory at the W. Alton Jones Cell Science Center in Lake Placid, NY which also was the teaching arm of the TCA. That experience and exposure to top scientists using cutting edge cell culture and media development technology cemented my interest in vitro biology.
Since that time cell and tissue culture has been the preferred platform for research in a broad range of academic and industrial applications including ocular research, high throughput ADMET screening, clinical and preclinical therapeutic biomarker development, and most recently chondrogenesis and anabolism of human articular cartilage. I believe the most satisfying aspect of my use cell cultures over the past 30 years is that I continue to marvel at the complexity of cellular life in a flask or multi-well plate.
Submitted by Carol Stiff and Michael Fay
