Transcript Document

HENRIETTA LACKS
Henrietta Lacks
Henrietta Lacks (sometimes mistakely called Henrietta Lakes, Helen
Lane or Helen Larson) was a poor, black, uneducated AfricanAmerican tobacco farmer who was born in 1920 and died on October 4,
1951 from cancer.
Without her knowing, the cells from her cancerous tumour were
cultured (grown in a laboratory) to create the first known
human immortal cell line for medical research.
This is now known as the HeLa cell line.
HeLa Cells
Henrietta’s tumour cells
Cells from Henrietta's tumor were given to a researcher who
"discovered that Henrietta's cells did something they'd never seen
before: They could be kept alive and grow." Before this, cells cultured
from other cells would only survive for a few days. Scientists spent
more time trying to keep the cells alive than performing actual research
on the cells, but some cells from Lacks's tumor sample behaved
differently from others. One specific cell was able to be isolated and
multiplied to start a cell line. The sample was named HeLa after the
initial letters of Henrietta Lacks' name. As the first human cells grown in
a lab that were "immortal" (they do not die after a few cell divisions),
they could be used for conducting many experiments. This represented
an enormous boon to medical and biological research.
HeLa cells
By 1954, the HeLa strain of cells
was being used by Jonas Salk to
develop a vaccine for polio. To test
Salk's new vaccine, the cells were
quickly put into mass production
in the first-ever cell production
factory.
Cloning of
cells
In 1955 HeLa cells
were the first
human cells
successfully cloned.
Enormous number of uses for her cells
Demand for the HeLa cells quickly grew. Since they were put into mass
production, Henrietta's cells have been mailed to scientists around the
globe for "research into cancer, AIDS, the effects of radiation and toxic
substances, gene mapping, in vitro fertililsation and countless other
scientific pursuits". HeLa cells have been used to test human sensitivity
to tape, glue, cosmetics, and many other products. Scientists have
grown some 20 tons of her cells, and there are almost 11,000 patents
involving HeLa cells. The cells have been used in
74,000 studies.
HeLa cells in space
Research into the effect space has on cells
and tissues was also carried out using HeLa
cells.
Henrietta’s cells were were on board of the
satellite Korabl-Sputnik 2 in 1960.
They were also on board the first manned
space flight in1961
Her family later learnt about these cells
In the early 1970s, the family of
Henrietta Lacks started getting calls
from researchers who wanted blood
samples from them to learn the
family's genetics (eye colours, hair
colours, and genetic connections).
The family questioned this, which led
to them learning about the removal
of Henrietta's cells. Henrietta’s cells
had been bought and sold by the
billions, yet she remained virtually
unknown while her family were too
poor to afford health insurance.
A highly recommended read!
• Recognition then followed.
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca
Skloot is a superb book which documents the
histories of both the HeLa cell line and the Lacks
family. It tells a riveting story of the collision
between ethics, race, and medicine; of scientific
discovery and faith healing; and of a daughter
consumed with questions about the mother she
never knew. It’s a story 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’re
made of.
• For their part, members of the Lacks family were kept in the dark
about the existence of the tissue line. When its existence was
revealed in two articles written in March 1976 by Michael Rogers, one
in the Detroit Free Press[28] and one in Rolling Stone, family members
were confused about how Henrietta's cells could have been taken
without consent and how they could still be alive 25 years after her
death.
• There is now the Henrietta Lacks Foundation strives to provide
financial assistance to needy individuals who have made important
contributions to scientific research without their knowledge or
consent.
Law and Ethics
Neither Lacks nor her family gave her physician permission to harvest the cells. At
that time, permission was neither required nor customarily sought. The cells were
later commercialized. In the 1980s, family medical records were published without
family consent. In 1990 in America, the court ruled that a person's discarded tissue
and cells are not their property and can be commercialized.
In March 2013, German researchers published the DNA code, or genome, of a
strain of HeLa cells without permission from the Lacks family. Later, in August 2013,
an agreement by the family and the National Institutes of Health was announced
that gave the family some control over access to the cells' DNA code and a promise
of acknowledgement in scientific papers. In addition, two family members will join
a six-member committee which will regulate access to the code.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/07/henrietta-lacks-family-settlement-ondna-info_n_3720936.html