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Updated: Aug 24, 2026

Transduction and Expansion of Primary T Cells in Nine Days with Maintenance of Central Memory Phenotype
Published on: March 18, 2020
A journey with T cells, primate/human retroviruses and other persisting human T-cell tropic viruses
1Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, 725 W. Lombard Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA. gallo@umbi.umd.edu
Abstract:
A study of the growth of primate/human T cells led to mechanisms for temporary laboratory culture of these cells (discovery of interleukin-2) and also their continuous culture (by immortalization after infection with human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 or 2 (HTLV-1 or 2)). Cultures of lymphocytes also led us to isolate five persisting T-tropic viruses: 1. the Hall's Island strain of gibbon ape leukemia virus, 2. HTLV-1, 3. HTLV-2, 4. human immunodeficiency virus and 5. human herpes virus-6 (HHV-6). This report is a brief synopsis of the discoveries of the first human retroviruses, the HTLV.
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