HEK cell

Human Embryonic Kidney cells or HEK cells are a special line of cells used in experiments where some proteins not normally present in this kind of cells can be expressed using the technique of transfection. By doing so, interaction between these different proteins can be determined.

HEK 293

HEK 293 cells were generated by transformation of human embryonic kidney cell cultures (hence HEK) with sheared adenovirus 5 DNA, and were described in 1977 (Graham et al., J. Gen Virol 1977 Jul;36(1):59–74). Since this first description they have become extremely widely used for a variety of studies and seem to be particularly popular in neuroscience.

External Links

Graham et al., J. Gen Virol 1977 Jul;36(1):59–74

HEK 293 Database