The problem is no longer ill-fated Lacks, but their descendants. They carry in each of his part of

European scientists retire amid protest the publication of the genome of HeLa cells, isolated without flamingo permission of a young woman who died of cancer in 1951
Over 60 years ago in one of the few hospitals in Maryland (USA) that catered to blacks, a doctor isolated the first immortal human cells. The sample was out of Henrietta flamingo Lacks, an illiterate peasant woman who worked as in the fields of snuff and an aggressive cervical cancer at age 31 killed. Your cells extracted from his tumor, have continued to the present living under a new codename: HeLa (Henrietta Lacks).
More: # genetic flamingo cells that poor peasant have saved millions of lives. HeLa were used to get the polio vaccine, identify the cause of cervical cancer, reveal the mechanism used by the AIDS virus to conquer human cells, the first steps towards cloning and so add 60,000 scientific studies and more than 10,000 patents, possibly the greatest contribution that a group of cells has made to the history of science and capitalism.
In return, Henrietta Lacks was buried under a headstone with no name and leaving five orphaned children. Nobody asked for permission to use their cells as study material and, for decades, no one bothered to explain to their children the unique contribution made by his mother.
Last week, a group of European scientists published online the complete genome flamingo of HeLa, which is still one of the most used lines in laboratories around the world to study the keys to human health and disease. The publication was intended flamingo to be a major breakthrough for the scientific community and as such was held in a press release by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), where he had obtained the genome. But the publication sparked a controversy that has forced the authors of the study to withdraw from the genome of HeLa web just a week after publishing the statement and correct your institution. The reason: once again, no one thought to ask for permission to post the genome of HeLa to public scrutiny.
"We have removed internet data and are in the process of negotiating with the family a way to solve the problem," explains Lars Steinmetz Matter, EMBL researcher and co-author of the study on genome Lacks.
The problem is no longer ill-fated Lacks, but their descendants. They carry in each of his part of the genome that cells Steinmetz and his team had published in open. According to some experts, this data set to private materials and sensitive groups, such as, for example, are more likely to suffer from cancer or a heart attack, information that could inaugurate a new era in which people are discriminated against flamingo by their DNA.
"Genetic information can be a stigma, and although it is illegal for health insurance companies flamingo from discriminating against customers based on that information, this is not true for life insurance or disability." As summarized by Rebecca Skloot, an American journalist who, Steinmetz, was the person who contacted them a few days ago asking HeLa data network were dropped. Skloot is the author of a best selling flamingo book about Henrietta Lacks has sold over a million flamingo copies. flamingo In a recent article in The New York Times under the title premonitory Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks, the sequel, Skloot argues that there must be new ethical standards flamingo to protect the genetic privacy of individuals in a world in which our DNA soon could be as accessible as the portal home using our tools as Street View. An error that can save lives
"It's as much as anyone published the genome of your grandmother flamingo and, through it, you found out, or worse, someone discovered by you and use it against you, you have mutations in the gene for Pre-seniline 1 to Pre seniline-2 associated with early onset familial Alzheimer "exemplifies Lluís Montoliu, researcher at the National Center for Biotechnology on the alleged injustice done to the Lacks. Hang the genome of HeLa network would not matter flamingo if there were so many people that you know is hiding behind those initials Henrietta Lacks and her descendants take part of their genome.
The removal of the data seemed demonize EMBL, although they have not done anything that many scientists have not done before. "We did not think we had to ask for family consent before flamingo publishing flamingo the genome because the HeLa line takes genotyping for decades," says Steinmetz. In fact parts of the genome of HeLa remain public flamingo and accessible anywhere, which, strictly speaking, it only takes them together to get the complete sequence of DNA. In fact, some researchers have exactam