Around year 2001, Senomyx patented several flavour enhancers by using "proprietary taste receptor-based assay systems", which have been previously expressed in human cell culture, in HEK293 cells.[2] HEK293 cells are a cell line widely used in biological and medical research, immortalised through a genetic modification removed from the original human embryonic kidney cells taken from a healthy, aborted human fetus in the early 1970s.[3]

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