Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 9, 2025
Long-Term Culture of Individual Caenorhabditis elegans on Solid Media for Longitudinal Fluorescence Monitoring and Aversive Interventions
Published on: December 2, 2022
[The legacy of Henrietta Lacks]
1ADÉS (Anthropologie bioculturelle, droit, éthique et santé) UMR CNRS 7268, Aix Marseille université, Établissement français du sang. CoReBio PACA, case 901, Parc scientifique de Luminy, 13288 Marseille Cedex 09, France.
Abstract:
Many developments in biology and biotechnology have relied on the HeLa cell line, originally derived in 1951 from a Black cancer patient without her knowledge. This origin became generally known at the turn of the century, and the patient's descendants have sought and obtained some recognition and some control but little compensation. They have now retained two famous attorneys to sue a biotech firm for very extensive damages, with more legal action planned against other companies. This may have important repercussions for the biotech industry, and raises complex issues regarding ownership of biological material and compensation to patients from whom these materials have been obtained.
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