HeLa Cells are Awesome

Lately I have been reading about the history of divergent cells lineages within research over the past 75 years. I came upon the HeLa cells (which I had worked with in tissue culture research.) Turns out they initially came from the cervical cancer cells of Henrietta Lacks during the early stages of molecular biology research in the early 50's.

They are particularly awesome because they are biologically immortal - a product an an enzyme called telomerase which keeps the telomeres (repeating segments of DNA that cap the ends of chromosomes) from shortening during replication. Repeated telomere wear and tear is one of the leading causes of cell age and death. Beause HeLa cells don't have to worry about it, they can reproduce endlessly given sufficient conditions to do so.

Because they are prolific and adaptive, they have become a major contaminant in most cell strains today - and as large as 10% of any known cell line might have arisen from/has some HeLa cells inside of it. This actually caused a big Cold War hullaballoo after the restrictions on Soviet/US cancer research was relaxed in the 70's. Not having seen HeLa cells before, the Soviets thought the US researchers were trying to conduct biological warfare by sending them infected samples. When they isolated the HeLa cells and saw their unique capabilities they thought the US had engineered some super cell.

So as awesome as all that information is, here's what really blows my mind - that Henrietta Lacks is still living all over the world in different laboratories, and seeing how her contribution to research science has effectively made her immortal.

Awesome.