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Special Virus Cancer Program, NCI

August 12, 2000

This is an interview of Dr. Paul Kotin.  It was conducted on 12 August 2000.  The interviewer is Robert E. Stevenson, M.D.

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Stevenson:                   I’m not sure how much he’s planning to cover.  The last time I talked to him, he was going back through a lot of the early science, to Peyton Rous and stuff, to try to get a background for the first concepts of viruses as causes of cancer, started the whole intellectual process going of what kinds of viruses, what species, what this, that, and the other.  I mean, he was trying to trace both that and he also wanted a history of cell culture and the concepts of cell culture and how it was applied to virology, so it could be rather extensive.  He’s written an autobiography of these periods through, and so I think he’s been cranked up and writing fairly prolifically.  We’ve gotten interviews with at least 20-25 people that were in the virus cancer program. At NIH Victoria Harden, who is in the Office of History, has transcribed the tapes and has made this, then, available to him for use and reference in terms of the writing. Now, I should inform you that the tape that I will make here will go to Carl and he will turn it over to Victoria, who will then transcribe it, and you are going to be asked to sign a release so that the National Library of Medicine can have this.  It’s fairly available to scholars.

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