# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/leonard-hayflick
# Generated: 2026-08-13T17:31:54.216Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/leonard-hayflick"
name: "Leonard Hayflick"
slug: "leonard-hayflick"
description: "Leonard Hayflick was an American anatomist who was Professor of Anatomy at the UCSF School of Medicine, and was Professor of Medical Microbiology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He was also past president of the Gerontological Society of America and was a founding member of the council of the National Institute on Aging (NIA). The recipient of a number of research prizes and awards, including the 1991 Sandoz Prize for Gerontological Research, he studied the ageing process for more than fifty years. He is known for discovering that normal human cells divide for a limited number of times in vitro. This is known as the Hayflick limit. His discoveries overturned a 60-year old dogma that all cultured cells are immortal. Hayflick demonstrated that normal cells have a memory and can remember what doubling level they have reached. He demonstrated that his normal human cell strains were free from contaminating viruses. His cell strain WI-38 soon replaced primary monkey kidney cells and became the substrate for the production of most of the world's human virus vaccines. Hayflick discovered that the etiological agent of primary atypical pneumonia was not a virus as previously believed. He was the first to cultivate the causative organism called a mycoplasma, the smallest free-living organism, which Hayflick isolated on a unique culture medium that bears his name. He named the organism Mycoplasma pneumoniae."
tagline: "American anatomist (1928–2024)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Leonard_Hayflick%2C_1975.jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "United States"
  isoCode: "US"
category:
  name: "Academics"
  slug: "academics"
profileType:
  name: "Academic"
  slug: "academic"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q39631"
birthDate: "1928-05-20"
deathDate: "2024-08-01"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           47.5
  momentum:             0
  historical:           13.36843333333333
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     60
  profileCompleteness:  70
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
sources:
  - url: "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leonard_Hayflick"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AF_%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%8A%D9%81%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%83"
    title: "ليونارد هايفليك"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AF_%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%8A%D9%81%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%83"
    title: "ليونارد هايفليك"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://be.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9B%D0%B5%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B4_%D0%A5%D0%B5%D0%B9%D1%84%D0%BB%D1%96%D0%BA"
    title: "Леанард Хейфлік"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Hayflick"
    title: "Leonard Hayflick"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Hayflick"
    title: "Leonard Hayflick"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Hayflick"
    title: "Leonard Hayflick"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Hayflick"
    title: "Leonard Hayflick"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%84%D8%A6%D9%88%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AF_%D9%87%DB%8C%D9%81%D9%84%DB%8C%DA%A9"
    title: "لئونارد هیفلیک"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Hayflick"
    title: "Leonard Hayflick"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%AC%E3%83%8A%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89%E3%83%BB%E3%83%98%E3%82%A4%E3%83%95%E3%83%AA%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF"
    title: "レナード・ヘイフリック"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Hayflick"
    title: "Leonard Hayflick"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A5%D0%B5%D0%B9%D1%84%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BA%2C_%D0%9B%D0%B5%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B4"
    title: "Хейфлик, Леонард"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Hayflick"
    title: "Leonard Hayflick"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Hayflick"
    title: "Leonard Hayflick"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9B%D0%B5%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B4_%D0%93%D0%B5%D0%B9%D1%84%D0%BB%D1%96%D0%BA"
    title: "Леонард Гейфлік"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1819009"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Imported from discovery source: wikidata-dump