[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
In a message dated 7/23/2006 7:17:43 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Do the cells *really* have human DNA? The wikipedia mentions their
extraordinary reproductive properties - don't these properties
necessitate some sort of change in the DNA? After all, if you took
cells from my Mom's cervix, they wouldn't keep propagating in a
laboratory. This possibility that they have non-human-DNA is
perhaps particularly instructive if further proof is assembled for
the theory that a virus is at the root of many cancers.
HeLa cells came from a tumor of Helen Lane.
Actually, Henrietta Lacks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Lacks
I read an article about this (repeatedly, probably a good dozen times)
in my teens. :) I can't remember if I read that one to my grandmother
or not, though. (My grandmother was a cancer researcher who went blind
from glaucoma after she retired. I read all sorts of articles out of
science magazines to her whenever we visited - I was actually very good
at that for my age. The hardest thing is describing graphs.)
Julia
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