About 48 years ago, a baby in the Netherlands was killed before he or she could be born. It was reportedly a healthy baby, but nobody seems to know the reason or nature of the abortion. We do know that the baby’s kidney was preserved for months or a couple of years and that a scientist used cells from the kidney to create immortal cells — cells that could divide endlessly, thus reproducing themselves indefinitely.
This cell line was named HEK-293. HEK stands for “human embryonic kidney,” and the successful line of cells was developed on the 293rd try.
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