= H. E. Alexander
{c}
<H. E. Alexander> is the first author of a 1958 study showing that isolated <poliovirus> <RNA> could initiate infection in human <cell culture>. Cultures exposed to the preparation produced intact virus of the corresponding type. This supplied evidence that the <RNA> carried information needed for the infection process.<Infectivity of ribonucleic acid from poliovirus in human cell monolayers by H. E. Alexander and others>[Abstract: isolated RNA infectivity and recovered virus; Journal of Experimental Medicine 108, 493–506, 1958]{ref}
The <ribonuclease> control was particularly informative. Treatment destroyed the infectivity of the isolated <RNA> preparation but did not destroy infectivity of intact <poliovirus>. That contrast helped distinguish exposed infectious <RNA> from residual whole-virus contamination. The experiment concerned specially prepared material in culture; it did not show that unprotected <RNA> has all the transmission properties of an intact <viral capsid>-containing particle.<Infectivity of ribonucleic acid from poliovirus in human cell monolayers by H. E. Alexander and others>[Abstract: ribonuclease and intact-virus controls, with dependence on assay conditions]{ref}
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