Slashdot Mirror
HeLa Cell Line Genome Data To Be Published
ananyo writes "Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, has brokered a deal with the family of Henrietta Lacks to release the genetic sequence of the HeLa cell line to researchers. The HeLa cell line was established in 1951 from a biopsy of a cervical tumour taken from Henrietta Lacks, a working-class African-American woman living near Baltimore. The cells were taken without the knowledge or permission of her or her family, and they became the first human cells to grow well in a lab. They contributed to the development of a polio vaccine, the discovery of human telomerase and countless other advances. Controversy erupted earlier this year after researchers published the sequence without the permission of the Lacks family. In a Q&A with the journal Nature, Collins explains how the deal was reached."
They just happened to be Henrietta's. The real stars here are the people who conducted the research and actually did the work.
I mean, if someone used my cells to do something incredible for science, I don't feel like I am particularly deserving of any credit. Those cells have nothing to do with me as a person or my actions.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
Are you suggesting that thats what they did in this case?
Suggesting it? Have you read up anything on this case? From wikipedia:
Neither Lacks nor her family gave her physician permission to harvest the cells. At that time, permission was neither required nor customarily sought. The cells were later commercialized. In the 1980s, family medical records were published without family consent. In March, 2013, German researchers published the DNA code, or genome, of a strain of HeLa cells without permission from the Lacks family
Since it isn't, nothing you say that relies on this tripe bullshit actually matters. They did not kidnap this woman, strap her down, and forcefully extract her blood without consent.
Please read up something on this case before spouting out BS yourself.
She consented. Nobody at all seems to think otherwise 'cept for you.
Please show me one source, one form where she consented to have tissue samples harvested from her for medical research. These days, I have to sign a crap load of documents just so that my insurance can share my name with third parties. Back then they just took what they wanted.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
I learned about the HeLa cell line recently, because I've begun working with them. In the field, they are a sort of de-facto standard. It's amazing that the culture of her tumor has lived this long –– far longer than it took to kill its host –– in fact for decades more. Henrietta Lacks deserves respect and remembrance for her unwitting gift to humankind, which arose from her own personal tragedy.
Fun fact: There are cancers that one can "catch" from another infected individual. If you are a Tasmanian devil, Syrian hamster, or sexually promiscuous dog, that is.
See the Wiki or Harper's mag for details. http://harpers.org/archive/2008/04/contagious-cancer/ –– Don't like pay-walls? Go to your local library!