Medicines from Animal Cell Culture
Chapter One
The Development of Animal Cell
Products: History and Overview
B Griffiths
1.1 INTRODUCTION
A review of the development and application of products manufactured by animal cells in culture
is in essence a review of animal cell biotechnology. Given the definition of biotechnology as: `The
integration of natural sciences and engineering in order to achieve the application of organisms,
cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services' (based on Houwink 1989)
the obvious beginning of animal cell biotechnology dates to 1954. This was when the first product
from the in vitro cultivation of animal cells, polio vaccine, was manufactured and administered
to the human population. The vaccine was an inactivated form produced in primary cultures of
monkey kidney cells (Salk & Gori 1954). Credit for the enabling work that led to this product must
go to Enders and his coworkers, who were the first to grow viruses in cell culture, i.e. in vitro, as
opposed to whole organisms or organ culture (Enders et al. 1949 ... read full excerpt from Medicines from Animal Cell Culture ebook