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A comment on Woman with Immortal Cells. Parent comment

Re:Woman with Immortal Cells by krakensden on Wednesday December 29, 2010 @04:48PM (#2050291)
Wasn't there a big up a few years ago, where they found that a bunch of cell lines had been contaminated with HeLa?
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Re:Woman with Immortal Cells by roadnottaken on Wednesday December 29, 2010 @06:29PM (#2050572)
Yes, there was. You can read about the issue (and a potential solution) here:

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100602/full/465537a.html

This happens because HeLa cells are very hardy, robust growers and they're found in most tissue-culture labs. So if you get even a single HeLa cell in your culture, they'll eventually proliferate and take-over the cells you thought you had. Regardless, there are still many, many other legit cell-lines.

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