Life Sciences HeLa cells are now sequenced

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The research world’s most famous human cell has had its genome decoded, and it’s a mess. German researchers this week report the genome sequence of the HeLa cell line, which originates from a deadly cervical tumour taken from a patient named Henrietta Lacks.

Established after Lacks died in 1951, HeLa cells were the first human cells to grow well in the laboratory. The cells have contributed to more than 60,000 research papers, the development of a polio vaccine in the 1950s and, most recently, an international effort to characterize the genome, known as ENCODE.

Previous work showed that HeLa cells, like many tumours, have bizarre, error-filled genomes, with one or more extra copies of many chromosomes.

- Nature.

While HeLa has been very useful for scientific testing, this sequencing casts doubts on how accurate of a representation these cells are of a normal human cell. When it comes to treatments and study that are closely tied to human DNA, it may be that these cells are leading us astray.

(For those who are more interested in human-interest stories, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" covers the person (and her family) the HeLa cells are from. It is a rather sad story in ways, since her family has not benefited from the cells that have contributed so much to modern medicine.)