How cells became records: standardization and infrastructure in tissue culture

Abstract

This article follows the history of tissue culture through its standardization as a technology, instrument, and ubiquitous object of reference for scientists working with cells. It identifies how human cells are established as cell lines and become records. As information infrastructure, cell lines have consequences for key archival concepts that rely on narratives of origin, bodies, and recorded information. The article contributes to a theory of the record by looking at cells in functional contexts of tissue culture, from the establishment of reference lines to the identification of cross-culture contamination, to their storage and dissemination. It puts forth a theory of the biorecord by examining acts of formalization in the standardization of scientific recordkeeping in biotechnology. The paper speaks to archival studies of scientific recordkeeping and argues for an expansion of research that examines nonprototypical records in functional contexts of creation, use, and processes of standardization.