
An Impostor Cell Line Set Back Breast Cancer Research (2017) - merrier
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2017/04/the_impostor_cell_line_that_set_back_breast_cancer_research.html
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nonbel
Since cancer is considered "many different diseases" now, this is basically
saying these people are studying the entirely wrong disease.

Its like if someone told you they study measles but then you check what they
are doing and see its actually heart attacks.

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nonbel
And read the comments. People who seem to be biomedical researchers are
claiming this isn't a big deal and all cell lines are essentially the same
anyway, etc. Its like they have never had a quantitative thought in their
lives.

EDIT:

And then the other comments about how biomedical researchers dont get paid
enough... If only they had more money they wouldnt study the wrong cells
(which doesnt matter anyway somehow) for decades after it was a known issue.

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dvh
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeLa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeLa)

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legulere
And linked under see also:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_contaminated_cell_line...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_contaminated_cell_lines)

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vedtopkar
This is a fascinating yet unfortunate story. Working with cell lines can be so
messy that this isn't entirely surprising, but it's still not something anyone
wants to hear.

As a side note: the lab profiled in the story that exposed this mistake was
run by Pat Brown -- the head of Impossible Foods.

