The cells were obtained from a single, aborted or miscarried fetus, the precise origin of which is unclear. HEK 293 cells were generated in 1973 by transfection of cultures of normal human embryonic kidney cells with sheared adenovirus 5 DNA in Alex van der Eb's laboratory in Leiden, the Netherlands. It is very commonly used in biological research for making proteins and producing recombinant retroviruses. They are also used by the biotechnology industry to produce therapeutic proteins and viruses for gene therapy as well as safety testing for a vast array of chemicals.Ģ93T (or HEK 293T) is a derivative human cell line that expresses a mutant version of the SV40 large T antigen. HEK 293 cells have been widely used in cell biology research for many years, because of their reliable growth and propensity for transfection. Human embryonic kidney 293 cells, also often referred to as HEK 293, HEK-293, 293 cells, or less precisely as HEK cells, are a specific immortalised cell line derived from a spontaneously miscarried or aborted fetus or human embryonic kidney cells grown in tissue culture taken from a female fetus in 1973. Cell line derived from human embryonic kidney cells
