3 ms·
A Lasting Gift to Medicine That Wasn’t Really a Gift
- rudyfink 17y agoIn case you are curious, the "case in the 1980s" referred to in the article is almost certainly Moore v. Regents of the University of California ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore_v._Regents_of_the_University_of_California http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore_v._Regents_of_the_Univers... ).
- timr 17y agoHeLa cell lines were one of the first things I learned about when I started doing molecular biology research. They're truly universal in the research world -- pretty much every molecular biologist knows of Helen Lacks. That said, I doubt that very many scientists know that she was an unwitting donor, or that there were serious class and racial issues surrounding her "donation". An amazing (and sad) story.
- bedris 17y agopretty much every molecular biologist knows of Helen Lacks. Considering her name was Henrietta Lacks, you just disproved your own statement. ;-)
- timr 17y agoD'oh! Touché. ;-) (Not that it's an excuse, but there's actually a relevant reason for screwing that up: in one of my first labs, people referred to them as "Helen Lang" cells, presumably because they didn't know the name of the woman, just the story of her uterine cancer. Hard habit to break, I guess.)
- bedris 17y agoNo worries. HeLa cells have become so mutated over the years that they might as well have been isolated from Henry Laurens.
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