Henrietta Lacks
Learnt Lessons
25/03/13 16:19 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan | HeLa cells;
When the genome of HeLa cancer cell line was published, it turned out that Henrietta Lacks' family did not appear to give its consent to have the genome published. Jeri Lacks-Whye, Lacks' granddaughter in a New York Times op-ed complained that the HeLa genome sequence should not have been published without their consent as it might have compromised their family's privacy. As a consequence, the researchers who published the HeLa genome apologized to the family, edited their news release, and took the HeLa data down. S. Pelech questions the value of sequencing genomes without strong phenotypic data to correlate with genetic variants, and finds it hard to accept that the privacy of Lacks' family was actually compromised in a meaningful way. HeLa cells are amongst the best characterized of these established cancer cell lines, so it is a real shame that the HeLa cell genome sequence will not be broadly accessible to cancer researchers to improve our understanding of this most deadly disease. Read More...