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93-415: HeLa ( / ˈ h iː l ɑː / ) is an immortalized cell line used in scientific research. It is the oldest human cell line and one of the most commonly used. HeLa cells are durable and prolific, allowing for extensive applications in scientific study. The line is derived from cervical cancer cells taken on February 8, 1951, from Henrietta Lacks , a 31-year-old African American mother of five, after whom

186-470: A University of California school (Guerrero at Berkeley ), five from private universities in California (Corrigan at Holy Names , Liu, Groban and Evans at Stanford , and Jenkins at Santa Clara ), and one from an out-of-state private university (Kruger at Harvard ). Two justices earned their law degrees from a University of California law school (Corrigan at UC Law SF and Evans at Davis ), two from

279-495: A biopsy taken from a visible lesion on the cervix as part of Lacks's diagnosis of cancer. HeLa cells, like other cell lines, are termed " immortal " because they can divide an unlimited number of times in a laboratory cell culture plate, as long as fundamental cell survival conditions are met (i.e. being maintained and sustained in a suitable environment). There are many strains of HeLa cells, because they mutate during division in cell cultures , but all HeLa cells are descended from

372-542: A case is granted review, the Chief Justice assigns the case to a justice, who, after the parties finish briefing, then prepares a draft opinion. Each justice writes a preliminary response to the draft opinion, and if the assigned justice is in the minority, she may ask the Chief Justice to reassign the case to someone in the majority. The Court then hears oral arguments and, immediately afterwards, meet alone to vote. The California Constitution requires suspension of

465-474: A central staff. The advantage to this system is that the reduced turnover of staff attorneys (versus the traditional system of rotating through new law clerks every year) has improved the efficiency of the court in dealing with complex cases, particularly death penalty cases. During its first half-century of operation, the Court struggled to keep up with its soaring caseload and very frequently fell behind, until

558-472: A contamination issue – caused not by human error or shortcomings but by the hardiness, proliferation, or overpowering nature of HeLa cells. Recent data suggest that cross-contamination is still a major problem with modern cell cultures. The International Cell Line Authentication Committee (ICLAC) notes that many cases of cell line misidentification are the result of cross-contamination of the culture by another, faster-growing cell line. This calls into question

651-407: A cost-effective way of growing cells similar to those found in a multicellular organism in vitro . The cells are used for a wide variety of purposes, from testing toxicity of compounds or drugs to production of eukaryotic proteins. While immortalised cell lines often originate from a well-known tissue type, they have undergone significant mutations to become immortal. This can alter the biology of

744-419: A degree of contamination. Stanley Gartler (1967) and Walter Nelson-Rees (1975) were the first to publish on contamination of various cell lines by HeLa cells. Gartler noted that "with the continued expansion of cell culture technology, it is almost certain that both interspecific and intraspecific contamination will occur." HeLa cell contamination has become a pervasive worldwide problem – affecting even

837-574: A matter of public policy, as disclosed in rule 8.1105(a) of the California Rules of Court. The original California Constitution of 1849 authorized the Court to publish all opinions that it "may deem expedient," and the current California Constitution of 1879 authorizes the Court to publish all opinions that it "deems appropriate." In 1850, a statute was enacted directing the Supreme Court to publish opinions in all cases, but in 1855,

930-704: A new species does not fulfill the criteria for an independent unicellular asexually reproducing species, because of the notorious instability of HeLa's karyotype and their lack of a strict ancestral-descendant lineage. Immortalised cell line An immortalised cell line is a population of cells from a multicellular organism that would normally not proliferate indefinitely but, due to mutation , have evaded normal cellular senescence and instead can keep undergoing division. The cells can therefore be grown for prolonged periods in vitro . The mutations required for immortality can occur naturally or be intentionally induced for experimental purposes. Immortal cell lines are

1023-553: A number of cancer studies, including those involving sex steroid hormones, such as estradiol and estrogen , and estrogen receptors , along with estrogen-like compounds, such as quercetin , which has cancer-reducing properties. There have also been studies on HeLa cells, involving the effects of flavonoids and antioxidants with estradiol on cancer cell proliferation. In 2011, HeLa cells were used in tests of novel heptamethine dyes IR-808 and other analogues, which are currently being explored for their unique uses in medical diagnostics,

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1116-510: A private California university (Guerrero at Stanford and Jenkins at the University of San Francisco ), and three from law schools at out-of-state private universities (Liu and Kruger at Yale , and Groban at Harvard ). The most recent addition to the court is Associate Justice Kelli Evans , who was sworn in on January 2, 2023, to replace then-Associate Justice Patricia Guerrero , who was elevated to chief justice. In 2023, Guerrero became

1209-711: A thorough, confidential evaluation of the candidate. Next, the Governor officially nominates the candidate, who must then be evaluated by the Commission on Judicial Appointments, which consists of the Chief Justice of California , the Attorney General of California , and a senior presiding justice of the California Courts of Appeal . The Commission holds a public hearing and if satisfied with

1302-489: A very important tool for research into the biochemistry and cell biology of multicellular organisms. Immortalised cell lines have also found uses in biotechnology . An immortalised cell line should not be confused with stem cells , which can also divide indefinitely, but form a normal part of the development of a multicellular organism. There are various immortal cell lines. Some of them are normal cell lines (e.g. derived from stem cells). Other immortalised cell lines are

1395-689: A viable cell line for tumor xenografts in C57BL/6 nude mice, and were subsequently used to examine the in vivo effects of fluoxetine and cisplatin on cervical cancer. In 1953, a lab mistake involving mixing HeLa cells with the wrong liquid allowed researchers for the first time to see and count each chromosome clearly in the HeLa cells with which they were working. This accidental discovery led scientists Joe Hin Tjio and Albert Levan to develop better techniques for staining and counting chromosomes. They were

1488-437: Is an open seat on the court, or if a justice recuses himself or herself on a given case, justices from the California Courts of Appeal are assigned by the chief justice to join the court for individual cases on a rotational basis. The procedure for when all justices recuse themselves from a case has varied over time. For a 1992 case, the chief justice requested the presiding justice of a Court of Appeal district (different from

1581-577: Is delegated to the State Bar Court of California (although suspensions longer than three years must be independently decided upon by the Court). California's bar is the largest in the U.S. with 210,000 members, of whom 160,000 are practicing. In 2018 and in 2023, the Court issued reform directives regarding corrupt practices within the State Bar of California. The court, with the assistance of

1674-616: Is its immortality; the cells can be grown indefinitely in culture. This simplifies analysis of the biology of cells that may otherwise have a limited lifetime. Immortalised cell lines can also be cloned, giving rise to a clonal population that can, in turn, be propagated indefinitely. This allows an analysis to be repeated many times on genetically identical cells, which is desirable for repeatable scientific experiments. The alternative, performing an analysis on primary cells from multiple tissue donors, does not have this advantage. Immortalised cell lines find use in biotechnology, where they are

1767-469: Is unclear. In 1973, when contamination by HeLa cells was raised as a serious issue, a staff physician at Johns Hopkins contacted the Lacks family, seeking DNA samples to help identify contaminating cell lines. The family never understood the purpose of the visit, but they were distressed by their understanding of what the researchers told them. These cells are treated as cancer cells, as they are descended from

1860-505: The in vitro equivalent of cancerous cells. Cancer occurs when a somatic cell that normally cannot divide undergoes mutations that cause deregulation of the normal cell cycle controls, leading to uncontrolled proliferation. Immortalised cell lines have undergone similar mutations, allowing a cell type that would normally not be able to divide to be proliferated in vitro . The origins of some immortal cell lines – for example, HeLa human cells – are from naturally occurring cancers. HeLa,

1953-712: The Human Genome Project . In the 1960s, HeLa cells were sent on the Soviet satellite Sputnik-6 and human space missions to determine the long term effects of space travel on living cells and tissues. Scientists discovered that HeLa cells divide more quickly in zero gravity. The HeLa cell line was derived for use in cancer research . These cells proliferate abnormally rapidly, even compared with other cancer cells. Like many other cancer cells, HeLa cells have an active version of telomerase during cell division, which copies telomeres over and over again. This prevents

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2046-766: The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit . The Court is open for business year-round (as opposed to operating only during scheduled "terms" as is commonplace in jurisdictions that observe the legal year ). The Court hears oral argument at least one week per month, 10 months each year (except July and August). It has been headquartered in San Francisco since 1874. Since 1878, it has regularly heard oral argument each year at San Francisco (four months), Los Angeles (four months), and Sacramento (two months). According to Justice Liu, when

2139-496: The 1950s. They were observed to be easily infected by the poliomyelitis virus, causing infected cells to die. This made HeLa cells highly desirable for polio vaccine testing, since results could be easily obtained. A large volume of HeLa cells were needed for the testing of Salk's polio vaccine, prompting the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP) to find a facility capable of mass-producing HeLa cells. In

2232-461: The 1986 general election. Newly reelected Governor George Deukmejian was then able to elevate Associate Justice Malcolm M. Lucas to Chief Justice and appoint three new associate justices (one to replace Lucas in his old post and two to replace Reynoso and Grodin). Between 1879 and 1966, the court was divided by the state constitution into two three-justice panels, Department One and Department Two. The chief justice divided cases evenly between

2325-735: The 2016–2017 fiscal year), the Court ordered that six superior court judges be selected from the pool that took office after July 1, 2017, to serve as the substitute justices for the six sitting justices, with the senior judge among that group serving as the acting Chief Justice; that acting Supreme Court eventually denied the petition for review. Six current justices were appointed by Democrats (Liu, Kruger, Groban, Jenkins, Guerrero and Evans) and one by Republicans (Corrigan). There are three African American (Kruger, Jenkins, Evans) justices, one East Asian American justice (Liu), two non-Hispanic white justices (Corrigan, Groban) and one Latina (Guerrero). One justice earned an undergraduate degree from

2418-521: The California Constitution, to be considered for appointment, as with any California judge, a person must be an attorney admitted to practice in California or have served as a judge of a California court for 10 years immediately preceding the appointment. To fill a vacant position, the Governor must first submit a candidate's name to the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation of the State Bar of California, which prepares and returns

2511-547: The California Courts of Appeal were created in 1904. This resulted in provisions in the 1879 Constitution requiring the Court to decide all cases in writing with reasons given (to get rid of minor cases, it had often given summary dispositions with no reasons given ) and requiring California judges to certify in writing every month that no matter submitted for consideration had been outstanding for more than 90 days, or else they will not be paid. To comply with

2604-430: The Court began to direct that some opinions should not be reported, and this procedure was retroactively approved by the legislature in an 1860 statute. Over 1,800 unreported opinions were filed by the Court over the next 25 years (which includes the 700 unreported opinions filed by the commissioners). The Pacific Reporter started to collect and publish the Court's unreported opinions at its launch in 1883, and then

2697-502: The Court gave in and switched back to publication of all opinions. A small group of lawyers later recovered and compiled all the unreported opinions filed by the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court Commission before that point, which were published in a separate seven-volume reporter called California Unreported Cases starting in 1913. Despite its name, those cases are citable as precedent. The Court supervises

2790-457: The Court has averaged 5,200 petitions for writs of certiorari and 3,400 petitions for habeas corpus , plus 40 additional petitions from inmates already on death row. In an average year the Court will decide to hear 83 cases and will be required to hear appeals from 20 new inmates joining death row. Each week, the Court votes on 150 to 300 petitions, paying special attention to a staff-recommended "A list" as well as to certified questions from

2883-620: The Court has sponsored a state constitutional amendment to allow it to assign death penalty appeals to the California Courts of Appeal. The Court has discretionary appellate jurisdiction over all cases reviewed by the Courts of Appeal; the latter were created by a 1904 constitutional amendment to relieve the Supreme Court of most of its workload so the Court could then focus on dealing with non-frivolous appeals that involved important issues of law. According to research by Justice Goodwin Liu, each year

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2976-414: The Court's jurisdiction. Thus, the Court has decided a number of cases by, between, and against such companies, as well as several cases involving Hollywood celebrities and high-tech executives. The California Supreme Court and all lower California state courts use a different writing style and citation system from the federal courts and many other state courts. California citations have the year between

3069-400: The HeLa genome, which is different from Henrietta Lacks's genome in various ways, including the number of chromosomes. HeLa cells are rapidly dividing cancer cells, and the number of chromosomes varies during cancer formation and cell culture. The current estimate (excluding very tiny fragments) is a "hypertriploid chromosome number (3n+)", which means 76 to 80 total chromosomes (rather than

3162-520: The Lacks family. A data-access committee will review requests from researchers for access to the genome sequence, under the criteria that the study is for medical research and that the users will abide by terms in the HeLa Genome Data Use Agreement, which includes that all NIH-funded researchers will deposit the data in a single database for future sharing. The committee consists of six members, including representatives from

3255-595: The Reporter of Decisions, publishes the California Style Manual for use by the California Courts of Appeal and the superior courts . As The Wall Street Journal stated, in 1972: The state's high court over the past 20 years has won a reputation as perhaps the most innovative of the state judiciaries, setting precedents in areas of criminal justice, civil liberties, racial integration, and consumer protection that heavily influence other states and

3348-416: The cases before them). Many important legal concepts have been pioneered or developed by the Court, including strict liability for defective products , fair procedure , negligent infliction of emotional distress , palimony , insurance bad faith , wrongful life , and market-share liability . The major film studios in and around Hollywood and the high-tech firms of Silicon Valley both fall under

3441-529: The cell and must be taken into consideration in any analysis. Further, cell lines can change genetically over multiple passages, leading to phenotypic differences among isolates and potentially different experimental results depending on when and with what strain isolate an experiment is conducted. Many cell lines that are widely used for biomedical research have been contaminated and overgrown by other, more aggressive cells. For example, supposed thyroid lines were actually melanoma cells, supposed prostate tissue

3534-479: The cells start to degenerate shortly after they are infected, causing viral induction of apoptosis . HeLa cells have been used to study expression of the papillomavirus E2 and apoptosis. HeLa cells have also been used to study the ability of the canine distemper virus to induce apoptosis in cancer cell lines, which could play an important role in developing treatments for tumor cells resistant to radiation and chemotherapy. HeLa cells have also been instrumental in

3627-615: The cells would be used for. Johns Hopkins Hospital, where Lacks received treatment and had her tissue harvested, was the only hospital in the Baltimore area where African American patients could receive free care. The patients who received free care from this segregated sect of the hospital often became research subjects without their knowledge. Lacks's family also had no access to her patient files and had no say in who received HeLa cells or what they would be used for. Additionally, as HeLa cells were popularized and used more frequently throughout

3720-461: The chronic backlog. The Commission was also subject to heavy criticism as an unelected "auxiliary court". Attorneys who enjoyed appellate work but had difficulty holding onto judicial seats in partisan elections repeatedly bounced back and forth between serving as elected justices and unelected commissioners. After two more decades of debate, the state legislature recognized that the state needed to establish intermediate appellate courts and referred

3813-432: The clerk's office at that time. The Court is one of the few U.S. courts apart from the U.S. Supreme Court that enjoys the privilege of having its opinions routinely published in three hardcover reporters . The Court's Reporter of Decisions contracts with a private publisher (currently LexisNexis ) to publish the official reporter, California Reports , now in its fifth series; note that the series number changes whenever

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3906-430: The detected chromosomal aberrations may be representative of advanced cervical carcinomas and were probably present in the primary tumor, since the HeLa genome has remained stable, even after years of continued cultivation. The complete genome of HeLa cells was sequenced and published on 11 March 2013, without the Lacks family's knowledge. Concerns were raised by the family, so the authors voluntarily withheld access to

3999-442: The development of human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccines. In the 1980s, Harald zur Hausen found that Lacks's cells from the original biopsy contained HPV-18, which was later found to be the cause of the aggressive cancer that had killed her. His work in linking HPV with cervical cancer won him a Nobel Prize and led to the development of HPV vaccines, which are predicted to reduce the number of deaths from cervical cancer by 70%. Over

4092-465: The editor of the state's official reporters. California has traditionally avoided the use of certain French and Latin phrases like en banc , certiorari , and mandamus , so California judges and attorneys use "in bank," "review," and "mandate" instead (though "in bank" has become quite rare after 1974). Finally, the Court has the power to "depublish" opinions by the Courts of Appeal (as opposed to

4185-411: The effects of radiation and toxic substances, gene mapping, and countless other scientific pursuits." According to author Rebecca Skloot , by 2009, "more than 60,000 scientific articles had been published about research done on HeLa [cells], and that number was increasing steadily at a rate of more than 300 papers each month." HeLa cells were used by Jonas Salk to test the first polio vaccine in

4278-503: The establishment of the Common Rule in 1991. The Common Rule enforces informed consent by ensuring that doctors inform patients if they plan to use any details of the patient's case in research and give them the choice of disclosing the details or not. Tissues connected to their donors' names are also strictly regulated under this rule, and samples are no longer named using donors' initials, but rather by code numbers. To further resolve

4371-498: The federal bench. Statistical analyses conducted by LexisNexis personnel at the Court's request indicate that the decisions of the Supreme Court of California are by far the most followed of any state supreme court in the United States. Between 1940 and 2005, 1,260 decisions of the Court were expressly followed by out-of-state courts (meaning that those courts expressly found the Court's reasoning persuasive and applied it to

4464-477: The federal practice of not publishing certain "unpublished" opinions at all in the federal case reporters). This means that even though the opinion has already been published in the official state reporters, it will be binding only upon the parties. Stare decisis does not apply, and any new rules articulated will not be applied in future cases. Similarly, the California Supreme Court has

4557-494: The female majority by appointing Leondra Kruger to succeed her; while this first female majority later ended with the 2017 retirement of Werdegar and appointment of Groban by Brown to succeed her, a second female majority was later established in 2022, upon the swearing-in of Guerrero to replace Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar . The Constitution of California gives the Court mandatory and exclusive appellate jurisdiction in all cases imposing capital punishment in California , although

4650-569: The first Latina to serve as chief justice. The court first had a female majority from 2011 to 2017. This majority had been achieved in 2011 after Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye to the court, joining Justice Joyce L. Kennard (an appointee of Republican Governor George Deukmejian ), Justice Kathryn Werdegar (appointed by Republican Governor Pete Wilson ), and Justice Carol A. Corrigan (another Schwarzenegger appointee). When Kennard retired in 2014, Democratic Governor Jerry Brown preserved

4743-533: The first immortal human cell line on record to be successfully isolated and proliferated by a laboratory, was taken from Henrietta Lacks in 1951 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore , Maryland. Immortalised cell lines are widely used as a simple model for more complex biological systems – for example, for the analysis of the biochemistry and cell biology of mammalian (including human ) cells. The main advantage of using an immortal cell line for research

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4836-450: The first to show that humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes rather than 24, as was previously believed. This was important for the study of developmental disorders, such as Down syndrome , that involve the number of chromosomes. In 1965, Henry Harris and John Watkins created the first human-animal hybrid by fusing HeLa cells with mouse embryo cells. This enabled advances in mapping genes to specific chromosomes, which would eventually lead to

4929-479: The incremental shortening of telomeres that is implicated in aging and eventual cell death. In this way, the cells circumvent the Hayflick limit , which is the limited number of cell divisions that most normal cells can undergo before becoming senescent . This results in unlimited cell division and immortality. Horizontal gene transfer from human papillomavirus  18 (HPV18) to human cervical cells created

5022-572: The individualized treatment of cancer patients with the aid of PDT , co-administration with other drugs, and irradiation . HeLa cells have been used in research involving fullerenes to induce apoptosis as a part of photodynamic therapy , as well as in in vitro cancer research using cell lines. HeLa cells have also been used to define cancer markers in RNA, and have been used to establish an RNAi Based Identification System and Interference of Specific Cancer Cells . In 2014, HeLa cells were shown to provide

5115-562: The issue of patient privacy, Johns Hopkins established a joint committee with the NIH and several of Lacks's family members to determine who receives access to Henrietta Lacks's genome. In 2021, Henrietta Lacks's estate sued to get past and future payments for the alleged unauthorized and widely known sale of HeLa cells by Thermo Fisher Scientific . Lacks's family hired an attorney to seek compensation from upwards of 100 pharmaceutical companies that have used and profited from HeLa cells. Settlement of

5208-534: The issue to the electorate. In November 1904, Senate Constitutional Amendment No. 2 was approved by the state's voters, which abolished the Supreme Court Commission and created the California Courts of Appeal. All five commissioners were promptly appointed in 1905 to serve among the original nine justices of the Courts of Appeal. Except for one decade at its founding, the Court has never been required by constitutional or statutory law to publish all its opinions. The Court currently chooses to publish all opinions as

5301-627: The justices' salaries if the Court fails to then file a decision within 90 days. The Court issues unanimous opinions in 77% of cases, compared to 43% by the Supreme Court of the United States . Throughout the year (including July and August), the justices have a conference every Wednesday the Court is not hearing oral argument, with the exception of the last week, respectively, of November and December (Thanksgiving and New Year's). New opinions are published online on Monday and Thursday mornings at 10 a.m. Paper copies also become available through

5394-547: The laboratories of many notable physicians, scientists, and researchers, including Jonas Salk . The HeLa contamination problem also contributed to Cold War tensions. The USSR and the USA had begun to cooperate in the war on cancer launched by President Richard Nixon , only to find that the exchanged cells were contaminated by HeLa. Rather than focus on how to resolve the problem of HeLa cell contamination, many scientists and science writers continue to document this problem as simply

5487-418: The late 1980s, the Court has turned away from the traditional use of law clerks , and has switched to permanent staff attorneys. Justices Goodwin Liu and Leondra Kruger, however, have returned to the traditional use of recent law school graduates as one-year clerks for some of their staff positions. The Court has about 85 staff attorneys, some of whom are attached to particular justices; the rest are shared as

5580-404: The latter provision, the Court does not schedule oral argument until the justices and their staff attorneys have already studied the briefs, formulated their respective positions, and circulated draft opinions. Then, after the matter is formally "argued and submitted" before the Court, the justices can polish and file their opinions well before reaching the 90-day deadline. This differs sharply from

5673-468: The line is named. Lacks died of cancer on October 4, 1951. The cells from Lacks's cancerous cervical tumor were taken without her knowledge, which was common practice in the United States at the time. Cell biologist George Otto Gey found that they could be kept alive, and developed a cell line . Previously, cells cultured from other human cells would survive for only a few days, but cells from Lacks's tumor behaved differently. In 1951, Henrietta Lacks

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5766-604: The lower courts (including the trial-level California superior courts ) through the Judicial Council of California and the California Commission on Judicial Performance, and also supervises California's legal profession through the State Bar of California . All lawyer admissions are done through recommendations of the State Bar, which then must be ratified by the Supreme Court, and attorney discipline

5859-611: The medical, scientific, and bioethics fields, as well as two members of the Lacks family. In an interview, Collins praised the Lacks family's willingness to participate in a situation that was thrust upon them. He described the whole experience with them as "powerful," saying that it brought together "science, scientific history and ethical concerns" in a unique way. HeLa cells are sometimes difficult to control, because they adapt to growth in tissue culture plates and invade and outcompete other cell lines. Through improper maintenance, they have been known to contaminate other cell cultures in

5952-706: The names of the parties and the reference to the case reporter, as opposed to the national standard (the Bluebook ) of putting the year at the end. For example, the famous case Marvin v. Marvin , which established the standard for non-marital partners' ability to sue for their contributions to the partnership, is rendered Marvin v. Marvin (1976) 18 Cal.3d 660 [134 Cal.Rptr. 815, 557 P.2d 106] in California style, while it would be Marvin v. Marvin , 18 Cal. 3d 660, 557 P.2d 106, 134 Cal. Rptr. 815 (1976), in Bluebook style. The California citation style, however, has always been

6045-411: The nominee's qualifications, confirms the nomination. The nominee can then immediately fill an existing vacancy, or replace a departing justice at the beginning of the next judicial term. If a nominee is confirmed to fill a vacancy that arose partway through a judicial term, the justice must stand for retention during the next gubernatorial election. Voters then determine whether to retain the justice for

6138-534: The norm of common law jurisdictions outside the United States, including England, Canada and Australia. While the U.S. Supreme Court justices indicate the author of an opinion and who has "joined" the opinion at the start of the opinion, California justices always sign a majority opinion at the end, followed by "WE CONCUR," and then the names of the joining justices. California judges are traditionally not supposed to use certain ungrammatical terms in their opinions, which has led to embarrassing fights between judges and

6231-434: The normal diploid number of 46) with 22–25 clonally abnormal chromosomes, known as "HeLa signature chromosomes". The signature chromosomes can be derived from multiple original chromosomes, making summary counts based on original numbering challenging. Researchers have also noted how stable these aberrant karyotypes can be. Studies that combined spectral karyotyping, FISH , and conventional cytogenic techniques have shown that

6324-425: The one where the case originated) to select six other Court of Appeal justices from his district, and they formed an acting Supreme Court for the purpose of deciding that one case. However, in a later case where all members of the Court recused themselves when Governor Schwarzenegger sought a writ of mandate ( Schwarzenegger v. Court of Appeal (Epstein) ), seven justices of the Courts of Appeal were selected based on

6417-416: The opinions to which they sign their names and staff members are mere ghostwriters , the commissioners openly signed their opinions. Each of the approximately 4,400 appeals (3,700 reported, 700 unreported) handled by the commissioners was resolved by an opinion signed by one commissioner with the concurrence of two others. The opinions always ended in a recommended disposition, such as: "We find no error in

6510-479: The original 1849 California Constitution , the Court started with a chief justice and two associate justices . The Court was expanded to five justices in 1862. Under the current 1879 constitution, the Court expanded to six associate justices and one chief justice, for the current total of seven. The justices are appointed by the Governor of California and are subject to retention elections . According to

6603-445: The panels and also decided which cases would be heard "in bank" ( en banc ) by the Court sitting as a whole. During the late 1920s, the court gradually transitioned to routinely hearing all appeals in bank, apart from two unusual exceptions in 1941 when it again tried to sit in departments. The 1966 formal abolition of the department system merely confirmed how the court had been actually operating for quite some time. Oral argument

6696-401: The power to "publish" opinions by the California Courts of Appeal which were initially not published. The California Supreme Court has handed down important and influential decisions since 1850. Some of the most significant of these important and influential Court decisions are listed below in date ascending order. Most of the Court decisions that follow were landmark decisions that were among

6789-486: The practice in all other federal and state appellate courts, where judges can schedule oral argument not long after written briefing is finished, but then may take many months (or even a year) after oral argument to file their opinions. In March 1885, the state legislature authorized the creation of the Supreme Court Commission to help with the Court's overwhelming backlog of pending appeals. The justices were initially allowed to hire three commissioners. Since oral argument

6882-546: The publisher changes, although the most recent changeover to the fifth series did not involve a change in reporter. West publishes California decisions in both the California Reporter (in its second series) and the Pacific Reporter (in its third series). (The New York Court of Appeals opinions are similarly published in three reporters.) Each justice has five assigned chambers attorneys. Since

6975-437: The record and the judgment should be affirmed." Originally, this was followed by a one-line unsigned per curiam statement in the name of "The Court," such as: "For the reasons given in the foregoing opinion the judgment is affirmed." Starting in 1892, the three justices who reviewed and summarily adopted each commissioners' opinion began to also sign their names. The commissioners were only partially successful in reducing

7068-448: The regular rotational basis, not from the same district, with the most senior one serving as the acting chief justice, and that acting supreme court eventually denied the writ petition. In a yet more recent case ( Mallano v. Chiang ) where all members of the Court recused themselves on a petition for review by retired Court of Appeal justices on a matter involving those justices' salaries (that apparently involved matters up to and including

7161-474: The remainder of the judicial term. At the term's conclusion, justices must again undergo a statewide retention election for a full 12-year term. If a majority votes "no", the seat becomes vacant and may be filled by the Governor. The electorate has occasionally exercised the power not to retain justices. Chief Justice Rose Bird and Associate Justices Cruz Reynoso and Joseph Grodin were staunchly opposed to capital punishment and were subsequently removed in

7254-443: The roller-tube technique to culture the cells. It was observed that the cells grew robustly, doubling every 20–24 hours, unlike previous specimens, which died out. The cells were propagated by Gey shortly before Lacks died of her cancer in 1951. This was the first human cell line to prove successful in vitro , which was a scientific achievement with profound future benefit to medical research. Gey freely donated these cells, along with

7347-481: The same laboratory, interfering with biological research and forcing researchers to declare many results invalid. The degree of HeLa cell contamination among other cell types is unknown, because few researchers test the identity or purity of already established cell lines. It has been shown that a substantial fraction of in vitro cell lines are contaminated with HeLa cells; estimates range from 10% to 20%. This observation suggests that any cell line may be susceptible to

7440-500: The same tumor cells removed from Lacks. The total number of HeLa cells that have been propagated in cell culture far exceeds the total number of cells that were in Henrietta Lacks's body. Lacks's case is one of many examples of the lack of informed consent in 20th-century medicine. Communication between tissue donors and doctors was virtually nonexistent—cells were taken without patient consent, and patients were not told what

7533-510: The scientific community, Lacks's relatives received no financial benefit and continued to live with limited access to healthcare. This issue of who owns tissue samples taken for research was brought up in the Supreme Court of California case of Moore v. Regents of the University of California in 1990. The court ruled that a person's discarded tissue and cells are not his or her property and can be commercialized. Lacks's case influenced

7626-506: The sequence data. Jay Shendure led a HeLa sequencing project at the University of Washington, which resulted in a paper that had been accepted for publication in March ;2013 – but that was also put on hold while the Lacks family's privacy concerns were addressed. On 7 August 2013, NIH director Francis Collins announced a policy of controlled access to the cell line genome, based on an agreement reached after three meetings with

7719-425: The spring of 1953, a cell culture factory was established at Tuskegee University to supply Salk and other labs with HeLa cells. Less than a year later, Salk's vaccine was ready for human trials. HeLa cells have been used in testing how parvovirus infects cells of humans, dogs, and cats. These cells have also been used to study viruses such as the oropouche virus (OROV). OROV causes disruption of cells in culture;

7812-479: The suit with Thermo Fisher Scientific was announced in August 2023, with undisclosed terms. Subsequently the Lacks family announced that it will be suing the company Ultragenyx next. HeLa cells were the first human cells to be successfully cloned in 1953, by Theodore Puck and Philip I. Marcus at the University of Colorado, Denver . Since then, HeLa cells have "continually been used for research into cancer, AIDS,

7905-450: The tools and processes that his lab developed, to any scientist requesting them, simply for the benefit of science. Neither Lacks nor her family gave permission to harvest the cells. The cells were later commercialized, although never patented in their original form. There was no requirement at that time to inform patients or their relatives about such matters, because discarded material or material obtained during surgery, diagnosis, or therapy

7998-496: The validity of the research done using contaminated cell lines, as certain attributes of the contaminant, which may come from an entirely different species or tissue, may be misattributed to the cell line under investigation. HeLa cells were described by evolutionary biologist Leigh Van Valen as an example of the contemporary creation of a new species, dubbed Helacyton gartleri , owing to their ability to replicate indefinitely and their non-human number of chromosomes . The species

8091-555: The years, HeLa cells have been infected with various types of viruses, including HIV, Zika, mumps, and herpes viruses to test and develop new vaccines and drugs. Dr. Richard Axel discovered that the addition of the CD4 protein to HeLa cells enabled them to be infected with HIV, allowing the virus to be studied. In 1979, scientists learned that the measles virus constantly mutates when it infects HeLa cells, and in 2019 they found that Zika cannot multiply in HeLa cells. HeLa cells have been used in

8184-416: Was actually bladder cancer, and supposed normal uterine cultures were actually breast cancer. There are several methods for generating immortalised cell lines: There are several examples of immortalised cell lines, each with different properties. Most immortalised cell lines are classified by the cell type they originated from or are most similar to biologically Supreme Court of California Under

8277-615: Was admitted to the Johns Hopkins Hospital with symptoms of irregular vaginal bleeding; she was subsequently treated for cervical cancer. Her first treatment was performed by Lawrence Wharton Jr., who at that time collected tissue samples from her cervix without her consent. Her cervical biopsy supplied samples of tissue for clinical evaluation and research by George Otto Gey , head of the Tissue Culture Laboratory. Gey's lab assistant Mary Kubicek used

8370-445: Was mandatory only for in bank hearings of appeals, which meant that many appeals were decided by three-justice departments on the briefs alone. However, the state constitution required department decisions to be unanimous to produce a final judgment. Any dissent automatically triggered an in bank hearing. After a constitutional amendment in 1966, the Court currently sits in bank (all seven together) when hearing all appeals. When there

8463-497: Was named after geneticist Stanley M. Gartler , whom Van Valen credits with discovering "the remarkable success of this species". His argument for speciation depends on these points: Van Valen proposed the new family Helacytidae and the genus Helacyton , and in the same paper proposed a new species for HeLa cells. However, this proposal was not taken seriously by other prominent evolutionary biologists, nor by scientists in other disciplines. Van Valen's argument that HeLa are

8556-476: Was not mandatory except for in bank hearings of appeals, the justices began to assign cases to the commissioners which could likely be resolved on the briefs alone. The number of commissioners was expanded in five in 1889. In retrospect, the commissioners can be seen as an important precursor of the law clerks and staff attorneys which the Court began to hire in the 1930s. In contrast to modern practice, where appellate justices are expected to take ownership of

8649-400: Was the property of the physician or the medical institution. As was customary for Gey's lab assistant, the culture was named after the first two letters of Henrietta Lacks' first and last names, He + La. Before a 1973 query printed in the journal Nature obtained her real name, the "HeLa" cell line was incorrectly attributed to a "Helen Lane" or "Helen Larson". The origin of this obfuscation

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