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Researchers Unveil Genome of 'Immortal' Cell Line Derived From Cancer Victim
vinces99 writes "Scientists have unveiled a comprehensive portrait of the genome of the world's first immortal cell line, known as HeLa, derived in 1951 from an aggressive cervical cancer that killed Henrietta Lacks, a 31-year-old African-American woman. The cells, taken without her or her family's knowledge, were pivotal in developing the polio vaccine, in vitro fertilization and cloning, and were the subject of a 2010 New York Times best-seller 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.' The Lacks family has never been compensated and, until this new University of Washington study, has never had a say in how the information is used. The study, published Aug. 8 in Nature, pieced together the complicated insertion of the human papillomavirus genome, which contains its own set of cancer genes, into Lacks' genome near an 'oncogene,' a naturally occurring gene that can cause cancer when altered. Scientists had never succeeded in reproducing cells in a culture until the HeLa cells, which reproduced an entire generation every 24 hours and never stopped. The cells allowed scientists to perform experiments without using a living human. The researchers discovered that the genome of the HeLa cell line, which has been replicated millions, if not billions of times, has remained relatively stable."
what a dupe, just 8 articles later...
Doctor: Well, I have good news and bad news.
...
Patient: Gimme the good news first, doc.
Doctor: Well, your cells are immortal... but
Patient: Seriously? REALLY?! Well, what's the bad news?
Doctor: Unfortunately, you're going to die from cancer in the next 3 months.
Patient: Well f&#$^@ kn3$9$#les.
- Nec Impar Pluribus, or so I'm told.
The original is still on the front page. Good thing we have "editors".
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
All tumor cells are immortal. i.e. they lack the apoptosis (programed cell death) that normal cells have. Tumor cells usually multiply (mitosis) slower than their normal countpart, but they do not commit suicide (apoptosis) when they should as normal cells do.
Because, in our rapidly changing socialist world, the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the one. Personal privacy, freedom, private property...gone because the "collective" run by a central authoritarian control, will run everything.
> Since its already a cancerous cell line, how can we be sure its actually useful.
It's the wrong question. After 62 years and 74,000 scientific papers, the cell line is not just useful, it's legendary. Every biology and medicine student reads about it in their text books.
> Wouldn't successful cancer treatments destroy it altogether?
It's a cell line. It's in labs (all over the world), not in a live person any more.
> Maybe instead of relying on one particularly incredible replication subject shouldn't have stopped us from trying to find more...
No one stopped from trying to find more. HeLa is not the only one. It's the first and the most popular one. Natural immortal cell lines are just very rare.
We can be sure it's useful because it's been used successfully for trials since 1951. I know reading the article is passe, but this is in the summary. Here's a Wikipedia article if you'd like to know more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeLa Additionally - the fact it IS a cancerous cell line is extremely useful in testing involving cancer drugs.
"The true measure of a person is how they act when they know they won't get caught." - DSRilk
Maybe folks missed the point on the original post? All of this research was from a cell culture acquired from an individual that never had a choice in the matter. All this research is going to earn mega bucks, but zero phucks and zero bucks granted by corporations to the family or individual that they have done this to, the donor. Ever wonder where the term 'crooks and liars' came from when referring to politicians? How about 'corporate bitches'? See?
Sure if if there were only a single culture of these cells. Protip: there isn't.
Why? These cells have been used by a numerous amount of researches around the world for decades.
Researchers*
it's not billions of rounds of growth, but billions of individual mitosis events. 2^22588, to first order approximation.
Also to add, there are numerous strains of HeLa derived from the original line. So it's actually quite likely to have such a number.
Ever heard of exponential growth? I'm not sure why it's such a hard and basic cell reproduction concept to grasp for you.
Hint- one cell divides into two. Two become four. Four become eight.
And in a few weeks it's A whole fuckton.
I have to gripe about the statement that HeLa is "relatively stable." What the heck does that mean? Did they bother to count the number of chromosomes?!? Is it still even human, or are these cells simply adapting to the environment where they can succeed - in a medical lab. Surely HeLa has changed the world of medicine for the better, but claims that it's stable seem incredulous.
Celebrate failure, and then learn from it - Nolan Bushnell
it's not billions of rounds of growth, but billions of individual mitosis events. 2^22588, to first order approximation.
No, that's actualy the maximum limit.
All in all, the estimated amount of HeLa tissue used in research until now is around 20 tons .
With an estimated weight of a cell at 27 picograms, the number of cells would be in the order of 1e+18 (implying around 2^61 to 2^62 mitosis events)
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
FTWA:
HeLa cells have a modal chromosome number of 82, with four copies of chromosome 12 and three copies of chromosomes 6, 8, and 17. As these are cancer cells, orderly cell division does not take place. Therefore the number of chromosomes they have can vary considerably, even within a single culture.
"The true measure of a person is how they act when they know they won't get caught." - DSRilk
obv the number 2^20000 is stupidly high. the point is it's billions of mitosis events, or in your estimate a thousand million billion. not billions of rounds of mitosis.
The researchers discovered that the genome of the HeLa cell line, which has been replicated millions, if not billions of times, has remained relatively stable."
The key word here is "relatively"
The fact is that mutations have arisen over the years and most scientists working with this cell line are using a variant of the original cells (and most likely a different variant than other scientists).
This cell line is the "white lab rat" of the genetics world, but like the white lab rat, it's not necessarily representative of anything except itself.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
obv the number 2^20000 is stupidly high. the point is it's billions of mitosis events, or in your estimate a billion of billions, not billions of rounds of mitosis.
yes (FTFY)
To put it in perspective, the number of atoms in the observable universe is on the order of 1e+80 (approx, since not all the atoms will be hydrogen); which means a puny amount of approx 2^266 atoms.
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
Seems there is a great opportunity for PETA&Co. to market the first grilled burger that can be produced without any animal suffering whatsoever.
Maybe we deserve this world ?
Scientists have confirmed the release of the first immortal story on Slashdot. "The HeLa genome is so amazing," said one editor. "We just can't get enough of it."
The Lacks family has never been compensated
How much compensation do you need to pay for taking a cell sample? Should I sue my old high school for when they took a cheek cell scraping from me in human biol class?
It's a cell line. It's in labs (all over the world), not in a live person any more.
Which is a part of the problem. It's a persistent little bug.
Ezekiel 23:20
I give blood and I know that it can be used for research. If you have a biosample taken and it's used in medical research, it's a good thing. Why should you be compensated ? You benefit indirectly when something useful is made out of it (or somebody else's). And in particular, why should the 2nd cousin's grandnephew be compensated when, as for copyrights, they haven't contributed a THING ? Not everything is about money.
Non-Linux Penguins ?
I'm pretty sure they were compensated by the fact that a god damn polio vaccine was developed much sooner then it would have been otherwise using those cells.
This crazy monetization of every stupid little thing in our society has to stop. To even think that a person should have been financially compensated -- or to remark that a person wasn't -- for something like this is completely absurd and a damning indictment on our society.
And if compensation was in any way needed, how selfish are we to even consider that bettering all of humanity was not enough?
Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
I'm pretty sure they were compensated by the fact that a god damn polio vaccine was developed much sooner then it would have been otherwise using those cells.
This crazy monetization of every stupid little thing in our society has to stop. To even think that a person should have been financially compensated -- or to remark that a person wasn't -- for something like this is completely absurd and a damning indictment on our society.
And if compensation was in any way needed, how selfish are we to even consider that bettering all of humanity was not enough?
Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
I dunno free healthcare for her and her decendants in perpetuity.
Radiolab did a story on this a few years ago. It's absolutely worth 11 minutes of your life...
http://www.radiolab.org/2010/may/17/henriettas-tumor/
I'm sorry, but your opinion seems to be wrong.
To add to that: the reason so many studies have used it is because it's a lot cheaper and easier than using "normal" cells. You have to be careful if you're making statements about normal cells to back up your results in normal cells, but as far as basic questions about cell biology, they're definitely "useful." Same rationale as using lab mice: no, they're not perfect comparisons to humans, and no, we're not studying mice to study mice, but it works. A lot less research could be done if we limited ourselves to using human cells only, due to costs, ease of experiments, and legal/ethical issues.
... implying around 2^61 to 2^62 mitosis events
I hope they used a 128 bit unsigned variable for that. If not, all their research material will disappear when it loops around 2^64. :-)
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
Nice.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.