Where are your cells from?

During the Christmas pause, I had occasion to spoke with one of my elderly aunts that I probably see once or twice a year. She had always admired my path to pursue biomedical research, but often she had shown to be uncomfortable with the notion that biomedical research implies some lab animal research. So, while eating some killed turkey despite we were not in the need for calories, she argued that now, as the TV says, the experiments can be done without killing, well, poor mice, but, I mean, directly on the cells. I was sipping some Chianti, so I just nodded up and down while she, well... you know... cells. Then, inspired by the wine, I replied back: by chance, do you know where the cells come from? No? Well, from killed mice, mostly pups indeed. My reply was partial, but at least she learnt something that the TV does not says, and I wanted to be partial to give her such a take home message for that day.

The truth is that most cell lines are actually of human origin, mostly, I presume, taken from volunteers. Maybe in the past, it was a little bit different, and I doubt Henrietta Lacks signed any declaration of consent for the use of her carcinoma HeLa cells, but OK, this was the past, you can read this book just in case.

However, if today I order some human hepatocytes, and I can get them for few hundred dollars, I suppose there was some human informed consent before - that no mice could ever sign - so yes, taking apart any argument regarding the scientific value of animal vs cell research, from a pure ethical perspective, I would prefer doing my research on human primary hepatocytes. However, this JCI editorial position read  is getting me anxious. And, dear aunt, you better believe cells come from mice, guaranteed! In a few words, the Journal of Clinical Investigation is making an aut aut embargo on Chinese research papers regarding transplantation. Says the Editor in chief:

(we will no longer consider) for publication any submissions pertaining to or containing information about human organ transplantation in China unless there is an attestation that the organ sources are not executed prisoners.

and more:

The only way to guarantee transplant of a liver or heart during the relatively short time period that a transplant tourist is in China is to quickly obtain the requisite medical information from prospective recipients, find matches among them, and then execute a person who is a suitable match.

Tough words! At the beginning, I felt lucky not to work on transplantation, and be relegated in a more naive basic science corner. However, as the hours are passing, I can not stop asking myself: when I place an order, where my human primary hepatocytes come from?

My Xmas gift, the organic iPad made with bugs

After the December 2009 'Bacteria towing Santa's wagon', this is the ultimate example of life-imitating art. Millions of E. coli bacteria glowing together. Biologists and bioengineers at UC San Diego constructed this remarkable living display by engineering the biological clocks of bacterial cells to fluoresce together like blinking light bulbs. And they synchronized thousands of these blinking bacteria colonies so that millions of them would glow ON and OFF in unison. 

The neon bulbs that make up this glowing displays are chambers within tiny microfluidic chips each one containing some 5,000 bacteria. Each bacteria is genetically engineered with fluorescent proteins attached to the biological clocks, and like the single-dots pixels in your computer and tv monitors, each of these microfluidic chambers form what the researchers describes in a recent Nature publication as the ‘biopixel’. The scientists made different versions of these flashing displays: the smallest is done by assembling together 500 biopixels in a microfluidic chip composed of 2.5 millions flashing bacteria, but the bigger display contains already 13,000 biopixels. Do you imagine recharging your iPad with some LB broth?

Original research reference: Prindle et al., A sensing array of radically coupled genetic biopixels. 2011 Nature Advanced Online Publication doi:10.1038/nature10722

Interview at Sciencedaily.com