Carrel flask used by Min Chueh Chang
date: label: date made
content: 1950s-1960s
notes: label: Description
content: Min Chueh Chang (1908–1991) used this Carrel flask in his laboratory at the Worchester Foundation for Experimental Biology. While Chang is perhaps best remembered for his role in the development of oral contraceptives in the early 1950s, he spent most of his career studying mammalian fertilization. His groundbreaking research with rabbits, hamsters, and other small mammals laid the foundation for the 1978 birth of the first human child conceived through in vitro fertilization.
label: Description
content: In a 1959 paper detailing the procedure for rabbit in vitro fertilization, Chang described using Carrel flasks of 1.5 mL volume as the primary vessels for fertilization. Rabbit eggs and sperm united in the flask, placed on a gently rocking platform, and incubated for several hours. Eggs were then removed and transferred to a larger 8 mL Carrel flask and again incubated. These eggs were later removed and examined under a microscope to identify those which had been successfully fertilized, and had begun division and could therefore be implanted into recipient rabbit mothers.
label: Description
content: From the 1920s through the 1950s biologists and medical researchers made a concerted effort to solve the problem of tissue culture—how to raise and maintain cells for scientific research. Part of the challenge was to create a home outside the body in which cells could survive.
label: Description
content: Early methods of cell culture relied on the hanging-drop technique, in which tissue grew in a plasma clot suspended from a glass slide. The hanging-drop technique, however, posed several problems: cells in a clot were difficult to view under the microscope, cultures could not grow to a large size, and specimens were prone to contamination.
label: Description
content: To address these issues, surgeon Alexis Carrel (1873–1944) of the Rockefeller Institute developed a new vessel for tissue culture, which came to bear his name. The Carrel flask featured an angled neck to prevent airborne particles from falling into the flask when it was open. Technicians could also sterilized the neck with a flame both before and after adding or removing nutrient broth.
label: Description
content: The flask’s round flat base and in some cases, the use of thin, optically optimized glass facilitated the viewing of specimens under a microscope without removing them from their vessel.
label: Description
content: Sources:
label: Description
content: Carrel, Alexis. “Tissue Culture and Cell Physiology.” Physiological Reviews 4, no. 1 (1924): 1–20.
label: Description
content: Chang, M. C. “Fertilization of Rabbit Ova in Vitro.” Nature 184, no. 4684 (1959): 466–67. doi:10.1038/184466a0.
label: Description
content: Greep, Roy O. Min Chueh Chang 1908–1991. Washington D.C.: National Academies Press, 1995. http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/chang-m-c.pdf.
label: Description
content: Landecker, Hannah. Culturing Life: How Cells Became Technologies. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2007.
label: Description
content: National Museum of American History Accession File #1992.0555
topic: label: Subject
content: Science & Scientific Instruments
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Biological Sciences
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content: Health & Medicine
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content: Science Under Glass
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology, Inc.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1992.0555.075
label: catalog number
content: 1992.0555.075
label: accession number
content: 1992.0555
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Carrel flask
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 3.1 cm x 1.9 cm; 1 7/32 in x 3/4 in