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Recommended: Hela cell discoveries
How He-La cells impacted science and the lacks family was after the death Henrietta scientist George Gey put He-La cells into a test tube they the first line of human cells to survive in vitro. But first they are t's a line, or population, of cells, taken from a person and used in scientific research. Cell lines are often named after the people from whom they were originally derived, and He-La comes from the first two letters in the name Henrietta Lacks. Cell lines are used in all kinds of ways, such as studying the effects of diseases or developing medications and vaccines, and play an invaluable role in medicine today. As they are cancer cells He-La are unlike human cells, human cells have 46 chromosomes, while He La has 76 to 80 heavily
The book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is the result of years of research done by Skloot on an African American woman with cervical cancer named Henrietta Lacks. Cells from Lacks’ tumor are taken and experimented on without her knowledge. These cells, known as HeLa cells, are the first immortal human cells ever grown. The topic of HeLa cells is at the center of abundant controversial debates. Despite the fact that her cells are regarded as, “one of the most important advancements in the last hundred years” (4), little is actually known about the woman behind the cells. Skloot sets out on a mission to change this fact and share the story of the woman from whom the cells originate and her family as they deal with the effects these cells have on them.
The initiative wasn’t taken to learn about the family or the origin of the cells. Roland H. Berg, a press officer at the NFIP, sent George Gey, head of tissue-research at John Hopkins, a letter saying, “ An intrinsic part of this story would be to describe how these cells, originally obtained from Henrietta Lakes, are being grown and used for the benefit of mankind” (pg. 106). This letter is a very clear representation of the lack of knowledge from society. Berg referred to Henrietta as “Henrietta Lakes” on multiple occasions in the letter. The correct form of her name wasn’t even known. A name is such a distinct representation of identity and Henrietta’s was so commonly mixed up and misspelled. An opposing view could argue that the scientists’ job was to work with the cells. Their goal was not to learn the family tree of the individual, but to make discoveries using the cells. It wasn’t until the autopsy of Henrietta Lacks, that people started to face reality: HeLa is not just a cell line. HeLa was a mother, a daughter, a sister, and a best friend. Mary Gey, George Gey’s wife and research assistant, viewed Henrietta’s body once it was being used for tests in the autopsy room. She noticed that Henrietta had her toenails painted with a bright red polish. Mrs. Gey said, “When I saw those toenails, I nearly fainted. I
Henrietta’s cells were being inaugurated with space travel, infused into rat cells, and even being used to make infertile hens fertile again. However, these are only a few of the many accomplishments that Henrietta’s immortal cells made possible: “The National Cancer Institute was using various cells, including HeLa, to screen more than thirty thousand chemicals and plant extracts, which would yield several of today’s most widely used and effective chemotherapy drugs, including Vincristine and Taxol,”(pg.139). This example of logos from the text again shows just how important these Henrietta’s cells were to the future developments in
Although it may seem impossible that the human who spawned this cell line would go unrecognized, this was exactly the case with Henrietta Lacks. In fact, her name was purposely altered in many publications to Helen Lake, Helen Lane or some variation of the sort, in order to hide her identity. As crazy as it may seem, Even Henrietta 's ' own family were unaware that the cells were taken from her and were being used in labs across the globe. The purposeful alteration of the name Henrietta Lacks is a sort of symbolic violence; a symptom of the structural violence which led Henrietta to Johns Hopkins hospital in the first place. By altering her name, and referring to her cell line as "HeLa," the scientific community effectively reduced the memory and image of Henrietta to something less than human. Scientists began to think of HeLa as something which was only a cell line, not as cells which had once been attached to a human being, with a life of her
In 1951, the sickness of a poor African American woman named Henrietta Lacks -also know as HeLa- would go on to change the face of scientific research; without her consent. Henrietta Lacks went into John Hopkins Hospital in hopes of medical treatment, but instead her cells were unlawfully stolen from her and used for scientific advances in the world of medicine for the creations of the polio vaccine, cell cloning, vitro fertilization, and gene mapping. Long after Henrietta's death, Henrietta's family was forced to live a life of poverty without medical insurance simply because they could not afford it although their mothers cells had yielded billions of dollars due to its advances in the medical world. The scientific community and the media
After sixty years HeLa cells are still one of the most popular cells in the world. They were not voluntarily taken, but they have been one of the biggest contributions to society. Without them many viruses would never have had a cure and hundreds of people would have died. However, because Henrietta lived her cells were taken from her. Without her life and death, her cells would never have become immortal like they are today. Her cells continue to help and cure people from diseases and viruses other cells would not be able to help.
..., the name of Henrietta Lacks needs to be introduced to the world since she is the woman who generated HeLa cells, because the name of the person who generated HeLa cells is still unknown. By doing this, her family will be honored and respected by others.
HeLa cells were one of the greatest medical inventions that came about for the scientific field and yet the woman behind this medical feat is not fully remembered and honored. Her cells and tissue were taken away from her without consent and more than that, she was exploited for being black and not questioning what the doctor was doing. Her family suffered through countless years of agonizing pain in which they were misinformed about where and what her cells were being used for. Yes, HeLa cells changed the way we view medicine today, but only at the cost of creating one of the greatest controversies of owning ones body.
...ave. They have been through a lot by people asking over and over about the HeLa cells. I think the least the doctors could do is tell them the actual truth about how they used those cells and stop making them guess or always wonder. I think they should have told them when they come to get the blood what they were actually using it for. They may not have understood, but the least they could do is tell them. They could have told them they wasn’t taking their blood to see if they had cancer they should have told them they were taking it for the HeLa cells. I think it was a good thing when I found out that Gey was actually doing research on the cells and not actually trying to get money. I thought this whole time he was probably getting money from it. I think when he was doing his research he was actually trying to help people, not put the Lack’s family through so much.
The use of Henrietta Lacks cells has led to many scientific breakthroughs, e.g., the cure to polio, cloning, and the human genome project. Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman who died of cervical cancer in 1951. These cells underwent a mutation that caused them to become immortal, meaning that they continue to divide since her death in 1951 to this very day. However, her cells raise an ethical question, because before she died she did not give consent for scientists to use her cells and after she died they did not tell her family that they were using them. This has been an ongoing controversy because the cells have been so beneficial for society, but they are derived from shady procedures. The reason way Henrietta’s cells, HeLa cells, didn’t undergo apoptosis was that they were cancerous cells that replicated indefinitely and these cells were modified to be even more resistant due to other diseases Ms. Lacks had.
In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot writes about one women’s journey to immortality. Through the telling of Henrietta’s —the immortal women’s—story, Skloot details some of the vast changes in biomedical research at this time: The HeLa cells —the first immortal human cells— attributed to many of these movements. With these cells, scientists were, and still are, making great strides in science. Namely, chemotherapy, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and many treatment medications stemmed from the HeLa cell line (Skloot 21). And perhaps, most notably, scientists discovered a polio vaccine using the HeLa cells. However, aside from the growths in biomedical research, Skloot highlights the corners that many scientists cut for their research. For one thing, Henrietta was not informed about her contribution to science: Henrietta’s doctors were not required to ask for her permission. The same holds true for other doctors at this time, as well. For this reason, all doctors held a significant amount of power over their patients. In short, Skloot portrays biomedical research as a practice with the need for advancements, informed consents, and a power shifts.
While reading this book, I was surprised how easily the doctors took Henrietta's cells without her permission and used them for the things they did. Also, I was surprised with the amount of time it took for Henrietta’s family to find out about the HeLa cells.
Lacks was an African-American tobacco farmer born in Virginia. Lacks was a young mom with five children early in her life and married her first cousin. In early 1951 Lacks went to Johns Hopkins Hospital for a “knot” she felt inside of her. When Lacks told her cousins about the knot they assumed she was pregnant. They had presumed correctly, but after giving birth to her fifth child Lacks started bleeding abnormally and in large amounts. Henrietta’s local doctor tested for syphilis, which came back negative, and referred her to Johns Hopkins Hospital. Johns Hopkins was the only hospital in the area that would treat black patients. Her doctor there examined a lump in her cervix and cut off a small piece, which he sent to the pathology lab. This lump later would be known as the tumor that killed her. Soon after, Henrietta was told she had a malignant epidermoid carcinoma of the cervix. Lacks was treated with radium tubes sewn in place, after several days they were removed and Lacks was discharged. She had instructions to return for her X-ray treatments. In the duration of her radiation treatment Henrietta had two parts of her cervix removed, the cancerous and healthy cells. This was done without Henrietta’s knowledge, but ended up being what made her famous in the medical field. The cells removed were given to Doctor George Otto Gey and would ultimately become the HeLA immortal cell line, commonly used in
In conclusion, the Henrietta Lacks cells have lived longer outside of her body than actually in it. Henrietta went from a small farm in Virginia with little education, to battling cervical cancer, and going on to change how we look at science in her short life. There are many areas of her life and legacy that I could have gone into today such as race discrimination, moral ethics, and patients’ rights but I have chosen to just give a overview on the facts surrounding her . Today, there is much acclaim for a woman who will never know the impact she had had on science. Her family is aware however and is working to make sure that the world knows about Henrietta Lacks. While her life may have been short her death may have changed the course of science. So again, can your cells change medical history? The answer now should be maybe.
This was a woman who was born in 1920 and passed away in 1951 from Cervix cancer, yet, in some form, people believe she is still alive to this very day. Henrietta Lacks may not be able to survive this long but her cells surely can. This has helped scientists majorly. They wanted to grow cells out of a person’s body in a petri-dish but the cells never survived and duplicated. But, Henrietta’s Cervix cancer cells worked exceptionally well with the tests and duplicated, survived, and strived. They were able to test her cells with all viruses and it all helped majorly with the information we know now. Factories grew, rumors spread, and soon everyone knew about Henrietta’s unique cells and the testing grew from there. Scientists were able to find the cure or vaccination for Polio and many other diseases and