U.S. Patent 5,397,696, issued on March 14, 1995, claims “[a] cell line, designated Papua
New Guinea-1(pNG-1) ATCC CRL 10528.”1
In simplest terms, a cell line is the perpetuation, in
an artificial medium, of an original sample of cells from a host.2
This patent claimed a cell line
derived from the white blood cells of a single resident of Papua New Guinea. His tribe, the
Hagahai, is an isolated group of fewer than 300 hunter-horticulturalists. The tribe interested
medical science because a number of its members carry the human T-cell leukemia virus (HTLV-
1) but do not have the disease. It was thought that a Hagahai cell line might prove useful in
developing diagnostic tests for and vaccines against HTLV-1. Consequently, a group of
researchers from the U.S. National Institutes of Health applied for and received a patent on the
cell line itself, “a viral preparation comprising the HTLV-1 variant in the cell line,” and several
bioassays, or diagnostic tests.