Reference
- HELA cellsNamed for Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman who died of cervical cancer in 1951 and whose tumour cells were collected from a BIOPSY specimen. The cells continuously regenerated and have been used by generations of researchers into cancer.
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Perspectives
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Now a major motion picture from HBO® starring Oprah Winfrey and Rose Byrne. Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they'd weigh more than 50 million metric tons--as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vacci≠ uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb's effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the "colored" ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta's small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia--a land of wooden slave quarters, faith healings, and voodoo--to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells. Henrietta's family did not learn of her "immortality" until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family--past and present--is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of. Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family--especially Henrietta's daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother's cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn't her children afford health insurance? Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.
The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks (film)
"The film tells the story of Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman whose cells were used without her consent to create the first immortal human cell line. Told through the eyes of her daughter, Deborah Lacks (Winfrey), the film chronicles her search, along with journalist Rebecca Skloot (Byrne), to learn about the mother she never knew and understand how the unauthorized harvesting of Lacks' cancerous cells in 1951 led to unprecedented medical breakthroughs, changing countless lives and the face of medicine forever."--
Online Resources
- The Legacy of Henrietta LacksAs medical records show, Mrs. Lacks began undergoing radium treatments for her cervical cancer. This was the best medical treatment available at the time for this terrible disease. A sample of her cancer cells retrieved during a biopsy were sent to Dr. George Gey's nearby tissue lab. For years, Dr. Gey, a prominent cancer and virus researcher, had been collecting cells from all patients who came to The Johns Hopkins Hospital with cervical cancer, but each sample quickly died in Dr. Gey’s lab. What he would soon discover was that Mrs. Lacks’ cells were unlike any of the others he had ever seen: where other cells would die, Mrs. Lacks' cells doubled every 20 to 24 hours.
- Lessons from HeLa Cells: The Ethics and Policy of BiospecimensHuman biospecimens have played a crucial role in scientific and medical advances. Although the ethical and policy issues associated with biospecimen research have long been the subject of scholarly debate, the story of attention of a much broader audience. The story has been a catalyst for policy change, including major regulatory changes proposed in the United States surrounding informed consent.
The woman with 'immortal' cells that changed the world
- The woman with 'immortal' cells that changed the world - BBC REELIn 1951, Henrietta Lacks, a black woman from Baltimore, USA, died of cancer. However, cells taken from her body without her knowledge continued to grow and multiply even after her death. They became the first 'immortalised human cell line' and changed medical science forever.
HeLa cells have helped to create cancer treatments, vaccines and have even furthered our understanding of space travel. Now, 100 years on from Henrietta's birth, her immortal cells are helping researchers develop a Covid-19 vaccine.
Do Right By Henrietta Lacks’ Family Attorney Asks
- Do Right By Henrietta Lacks’ Family Attorney AsksHenrietta Lacks, a Black woman, died in 1951 after being treated at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where her cancer cells were taken from her body and studied without her knowledge or consent. Now her family is suing a pharmaceutical company over the use of her cells, which form an immortal ‘cell line’ that reproduces endlessly outside the body, and has been used extensively in tests ranging from drug development to space flight. Yet, her heirs have received no compensation. Ron Lacks, grandson of Henrietta Lacks, and Benjamin Crump, attorney for the Lacks Family, join Joy Reid on the lawsuit.