Stanley M. Gartler

Stanley M. Gartler (b. June 9, 1923) is a cell and molecular biologist and human geneticist. He and Walter Nelson-Rees identified that HeLa cells had contaminated many cell lines thought to be unique.

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Birth

Stanley Gartler was born on June 9, 1923 to George Gartler (1888-1980) and Delvira Kupferberg. George and Delvira married on January 11, 1914 and had two children: George; and his sister, Adeline Gartler who was born on September 26, 1921. Stanley's grandparents were Rachel Granich and Srul Isidore Gartler. Stanley married Marion Mitchelson.

HeLa

In 1967 Stanley Gartler used the concept of biochemical polymorphism to distinguish individual cell lines. Some proteins have a number of different forms, called isoenzymes, and the forms can differ genetically among individuals. The American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) supplied Gartler with what was thought to be 18 unique human cell lines, and he found that all these cell lines had the less common A form of the isoenzyme, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), the form found in HeLa cells, and a form common in people of African descent and rare in people of European descent. Walter Nelson-Rees was co-director of the Cell Culture Laboratory at the Naval Biosciences Laboratory in Oakland, California. This laboratory was part of the University of California at Berkeley and was funded by NIH. Walter-Rees later used Giemsa banding karyotyping, and he found that the HeLa cell line had several unique marker chromosomes not found in the normal complement of human chromosomes.

University of Washington

Stanley Gartler is currently Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Genetics at the University of Washington and Research Affiliate at the Center on Human Development and Disability there.

References

• University of Washington