Chapter 9 Extra Edition 1: iPS cells created the 'future.' But what about the cells that supported the 'past'? — The story of HeLa cells

① The 'unstoppable cells' that appeared in the laboratory
It is well known that iPS cells have opened up the future of life science.
But are you aware of the 'other cell' that supported 20th-century life science from behind the scenes?

That is the HeLa cell.

HeLa cells were born in 1951 at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.
Cells taken from the tumor of Henrietta Lacks, who was being treated for cervical cancer, showed abnormal growth in the laboratory (the name 'HeLa' was derived from the 'He' and 'La' in her name).

At the time, with the culture techniques available, any human cell would die in a short period of time. However, HeLa cells alone did not stop dividing in the culture dish, continuing to multiply as if they were maintaining their own life.
For researchers at the time, this was an event that fundamentally overturned the 'common sense of cell culture.'

HeLa cells born in this way spread to laboratories around the world as the first 'immortalized human cell line' in history.

Even with modern culture techniques, human cells in the laboratory reach the end of their lifespan after dividing a few dozen times and eventually die. However, HeLa cells have continued to live, repeating cell division in laboratories around the world, at this very moment, more than 70 years after they were collected in 1951.

② Another 'protagonist' that moved the history of science
The greatest value of HeLa cells was that they made it possible to use human cells stably and in large quantities. As a result, research in various fields of life science and medicine accelerated rapidly.

● Development of the polio vaccine
In the 1950s, the polio vaccine, which was a global threat, was realized by using HeLa cells to mass-produce the virus.

● Foundation of cancer research
HeLa cells are cancer cells themselves, and they became the first 'experimental subjects' for understanding the mechanisms of mutation and runaway growth.

Here, some readers may have the following question:
'HeLa cells are cancer cells, but can they be handled safely in the laboratory?'

In fact, cancer cells do not infect people like viruses, and they cannot live outside the body as they do inside the human body. Because they can only grow in specialized culture media, they have been established as experimental cells that can be handled safely in the laboratory.

● Virology
They became a 'stage' for elucidating how many viruses, such as HPV and HIV, behave within cells.

The foundation of such virus research has also been utilized in basic research surrounding the recent novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

● Standardization of molecular biology
Many of today's basic methods in life science, such as DNA manipulation, gene introduction, and drug response evaluation, were established through cumulative work using HeLa cells.

The role of HeLa cells was truly that of a
'nameless research partner that supported 20th-century life science'
.

③ Cells that even traveled to space
Surprisingly, HeLa cells left Earth and were even transported into space.

In microgravity experiments conducted on the Space Shuttle, how cells divide and how genes change in a weightless environment were investigated, and this data is still cited today as basic data for space medicine.

You might wonder, 'Why send cells to space?' but this is essential research for humanity to find 'ways to operate safely in outer space.' HeLa cells have been used as a representative human cell model for this purpose.

In this way, HeLa cells were not only used in laboratories on the ground, but were also
cells that opened the door to life science in outer space.

④ The 'human story' behind progress
While HeLa cells supported the development of life science, there are both light and shadow sides to this story.

At the time, the concept of informed consent had not been established, so the cells were collected without the patient's knowledge, and her family did not learn of this fact until more than 20 years after her death.

Such actions are unthinkable today, but unfortunately, even in 2013, the genomic information of HeLa cells was published without permission, sparking a debate over ethics and privacy.

When we talk about advanced medicine and genetic research,
the foundation always involves 'someone's body'—.
HeLa cells quietly remind us of that fact.

Just as iPS cells opened up the future,
HeLa cells supported 20th-century life science and paved the way to the present.

Both of these are essential stories that make up modern life science.