Research Breakthroughs Involving HeLa Cells

Research Breakthroughs Involving HeLa Cells

1. Recombinant Proteins Production: bacteria lack the enzymes to make complex proteins, which is where HeLa cells come in

2. HPV Vaccine: researchers found that HeLa cells were infected with the HPv virus, thus being able to make vaccines out of these cells

3. Understanding Virology: experimental viral infection on HeLa cells allows researchers to characterize how specific viruses can evade the immune system, such as CD4 T-cell receptor utilization by HPV

4. Toxicity Testing: originally hepatocytes were used for detection of cell toxicity, but were declared unstable. Now, HeLa cells are used, which is an essential contribution to science

5. Monoclonal Antibodies Production: produced using hybridoma crosses of HeLa and other animal cells, have many other applcations such as medical diagnosis and cancer therapy.

6. Polio Vaccine: developed in 1950's, but HeLa cells were the only human cells that could be used to test this vaccine.

7. Genome Sequencing: HeLA cells fused with mouse cells became the first hybrid cells, the fusion of two cell types in research. This breakthrough aided in the emergence of the Human Genome Project

8. Tolomerase Activity: in 1996, scientist Gregg Morin isolated telomerase from HeLa cells, which were previously only found in animal embryos. This supported the hypothesis that both embryos and cancer cells utilize telomerase to rapidly divide, giving researchers insight on the importance of telomerase in human embryology.