The National Institutes of Health recently announced that it has reached an "understanding" with the family of Henrietta Lacks to allow controlled access to whole genome sequence data from HeLa cells, the cells derived without consent from the tumor of Henrietta Lacks in 1951. Claire Cowart Haltom talks with Bio-IT World about how this agreement will inform future decisions related to DNA privacy. "NIH considers the widespread use of Henrietta Lacks' cells a unique circumstance and does not expect to enter into future data use agreements for other cell lines. However, it is highly unlikely that this will be an isolated event," said Ms. Haltom.
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