“What is a breast cancer cell line” seems like a silly question and an odd way to begin this blog, but as I hope to convince you, it’s a question that is very important and underappreciated. Technically, we all know what a breast cancer cell line is; it’s a continuously growing, immortal population of cells, most often cancer cells, that were isolated from a patient at some point, and have been growing in the lab ever since because they are, well…immortal. We know that they are likely to be genetically abnormal, but they are useful because they have one or two defining characteristics that fall within the interest of a particular investigator or lab in which they are being studied. Thus, they are considered to be a highly useful laboratory reagent. And, as a highly useful lab reagent, we have no problem sharing this reagent with other labs that have similar interests. After all, the cells can grow indefinitely, so one can actually farm them in the lab. They are easy to freeze away in a viable state, and thus they are easy to transport. What could go wrong?
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