Researchers originally took HeLa cells from an aggressive cervical cancer tumour. HCI's Cancer Learning Center reviews the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which tells Lacks's story and explores the issues of ethics and racism in . Watch. Multiphoton fluorescence image of HeLa cells with cytoskeletal microtubules (magenta) and DNA (cyan)Stocktrek Images, Inc. / Alamy, Multiphoton fluorescence image of HeLa cells with cytoskeletal microtubules (magenta) and DNA (cyan). Explain. In 1951, a black woman named Henrietta Lacks walked into Johns Hopkins hospital with a severe illness. I've spent years staring at that photo, wondering what kind of life she led, what happened to her children, and what she'd think about cells from her cervix living on foreverbought, sold, packaged, and shipped by the trillions to laboratories around the world. They were produced at the worlds first cell factory. Theres also the more troubling question of whether informed consent is worth the potential benefits of medical research. The book introduces us to the woman who helped change modern medicine. Copyright 2023, Lets Talk Science, All Rights Reserved. . Alongside HHMI, National Institutes of Health director Dr Francis Collins has donated a portion of his 2020 Templeton Prize to the foundation. Explain. In the 1970s, a leukaemia patient named John Moore donated blood samples believing they would be used for diagnostic purposes. Article in the New York Times about the privacy implications of scientists decision to publish the genome of Henrietta Lacks cells. The ongoing impact of the HeLa cells use can be seen in radiation for cancerous cells and AIDs research. Their chromosomes and proteins have been studied with such detail and precision that scientists know their every quirk. To what extent - how much compensation and for how long? Lacks described a knot in her stomach, which the doctor ignored, telling her only that she was pregnant. However, their use raises many important ethical questions. Should scientists be held to a higher level of ethical standards than the average citizen? Click Register if you need to create a free TED-Ed account. Henrietta Lacks' Immortal Cells: Racism in Medicine The HeLa cell line has been a mainstay of the biotechnology industry for decades, propagated from the biopsy of a uniquely aggressive case of cervical cancer taken from one Henrietta Lacks. In fact, some people argue that most of the worlds population has benefited from research using HeLa cells. The Miracle Woman. They said they were being tested to see if they had the cancer that killed Henrietta, but according to the reporters, scientists were studying the Lacks family to learn more about Henrietta's cells. Image by 14GTR. It was beautiful, he said, like a perfectly choreographed dance. HPV can cause genital warts and cervical cancer. When I divorced, it was because she'd decided he was getting in the way of the book. Their cells continue to divide in tissue culture dishes in labs worldwide. At one point I even called directory assistance in Baltimore looking for Henrietta's husband, David Lacks, but he wasn't listed. In addition, Lacks own name was often obscured and misidentified as Helen Lane. Additional Images from Wikimedia Commons. The Backstory In 1950, Mrs. In 2017, HBO released a film about Lackss life based on the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. These cells changed the course of medical research. As I worked my way through graduate school studying writing, I became fixated on the idea of someday telling Henrietta's story. Usually, your tissues are pulled together with hundreds of thousands of other specimens to look at a broad base of people of a certain demographic to look for disease risk or diagnostic criteria. Whether or not the Lacks family gets the compensation they think they deserve, the ongoing conversation about her cells is part of a larger debate about ethics, privacyand informed consent. After she died in 1951, medical researchers collected her cells. HeLa cells have also contributed to: The durability of HeLa cells has made them very useful for medical science. Why do you think this story took so long to surface and be reported in popular media? Under US law, a persons cells can be used to make billions, of which theyre not owed a penny. Explain. Some said ovarian cancer killed her, others said breast or cervical cancer. I'm pretty sure that shelike most of uswould be shocked to hear that there are trillions more of her cells growing in laboratories now than there ever were in her body. In fact, doctors did not ask her when they took her cells to study, and no one told her that they were using her cells. Henrietta's were different: they reproduced an entire generation every twenty-four hours . "Did she know how important her cells were? At the time, it was standard to take tumour cells for research without consent. This thinking would apply to everything in my life: when I married while writing this book, it was because Henrietta wanted someone to take care of me while I worked. "She was trying to get your attention." While performing surgery to remove the cancer, Lacks's doctor also took a biopsy of her healthy cells without securing her consent. Research now shows that these chromosomes hold genes that help stop cancer from forming. One scientist estimates that if you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they'd weigh more than 50 million metric tonsan inconceivable number, given that an individual cell weighs almost nothing. If youre a researcher purchasing a $10,000 HeLa cell line, that has in it a whole bunch of machinery that was created by someone elses intellectual invention, what percentage of that price is because of HeLa cells and what percentage of that is the sellers intellectual property?. Hiring activity in the Asia-Pacific pharma industry increased by 2% in Q1 2023, Optimising production time and quality with the latest innovations in cryo-milling, Three ways to improve participant engagement in your digital clinical trials, How Israel and Turkey are growing markets for clinical trials. For scientists, one of the lessons is that there are human beings behind every biological sample used in the laboratory, Skloot told Smithsonian.com in 2010. This has resulted in over 70,000 scientific publications. a malignant epidermoid carcinoma of the cervix. However, its unlikely there will ever be another cell line quite as remarkable as HeLa cells. Henrietta Lacks' (HeLa) cells traveled in some of the first missions to space. When given a constant supply of nutrients, they produced a new generation of cells in less than 24 hours. He believed this would help in performing long-lasting studies on cancer. A poor, black tobacco farmer from southern Virginia, Henrietta was diagnosed with a type of cervical cancer that was extremely aggressive. See how this article appeared when it was originally published on NYTimes.com. They were schematics of the cell reproduction cycle, but to me they just looked like a neon-colored mess of arrows, squares, and circles with words I didn't understand, like "MPF Triggering a Chain Reaction of Protein Activations.". Christopher Robertson (Student Fellow Alumnus) and Jonathan D. Loe Robin Bulleri tells the story of Henrietta Lacks, a woman whose DNA led to countless cures, patents, and discoveries. The goal is to one day work at the Smithsonian Institute. Henrietta Lacks' 'Immortal' Cells Margaret Gey with Minnie, a technician. "We learned that by studying cancer cells in culture," Defler said. | Its very hard for any one persons particular tissue donation to be used for a product anymore, says Kroll. Lacks described a knot in her stomach, which the doctor ignored, telling her only that she was pregnant. He said, All I remember is that she had this disease, and right after she died they called me in the office wanting to get my permission to take a sample of some kind. Henriettas story is significant because of the ongoing meaning of her life to science and medicine. 1931 image of scientists in a lab bythe US NIH. These scientists from 1931 were studying how cancer cells get energy. Eventually I tracked down a few magazine articles about her from the seventies. Named after the first two letters of her first and last name, HeLa cells were used in many different medical experiments because they could be grown so easily in the lab. When Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cancer in 1951, doctors took her cells and grew them in test tubes. If you have already signed into ted.com click Sign In to verify your authentication. Lacks cells continue to been used in medical research globally. HeLa cells, which never stop dividing, have played a part in some of the most significant modern medical discoveries. TheHenrietta Lacks Foundation was created to help victims in similar situations. He had attempted to establish a cancer cell line from several cancer biopsy samples in the past. If they were fed the right mixture of nutrients to allow them to grow, the cells were effectively immortal. "HeLa cells were one of the most important things that happened to medicine in the last hundred years," Defler said. But eventually, Henrietta Lacks family understandably became upset. As a result of Lackss case, most countries now have specific rules and laws around informed consent and privacy to help protect patients. One set of the samples taken were healthy and the other, cancerous. one student yelled. It said, "Pounding in the back of their heads was a gnawing feeling that science and the press had taken advantage of them.". The changes would expand regulation to cover new domains in hopes of protecting the Henrietta Lackses of today. https://askabiologist.asu.edu/immortal-cells, Public Service and Henrietta Lacks, a poor black woman from Maryland, had cells removed from her by doctors when she was being treated for terminal cancer in 1951. In August last year, UK based firm Abcam became the first ever biotechnology company to make a donation to the Henrietta Lacks Foundation that has used HeLa cells in its research. In an excerpt from her book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot tells her story. Chloe Kent takes a closer look at Lacks legacy and asks what the medical industry can learn from it today about informed consent. Why or why not? While Henriettas cells have led to major gains in the field of medicine, her family still lives with limited access to healthcare, unable to access the very medicines Henrietta made possible. I couldn't have imagined it then, but that phone call would mark the beginning of a decadelong adventure through scientific laboratories, hospitals, and mental institutions, with a cast of characters that would include Nobel laureates, grocery store clerks, convicted felons, and a professional con artist. I'd transferred to an alternative school that offered dream studies instead of biology, so I was taking Defler's class for high-school credit, which meant that I was sitting in a college lecture hall at sixteen with words like mitosis and kinase inhibitors flying around. At the time, Lackss descendants argued that the published genome had the potential to reveal genetic traits of family members. Only students who are 13 years of age or older can create a TED-Ed account. ", "I wish I could tell you," he said, "but no one knows anything about her. Text - H.R.4122 But where did we get these cells? Can we humans ever become immortal? What are some of the other applications HeLa cells have had in advancing medical research and innovation? Why do we have crooked teeth when our ancestors didnt? Established by Rebecca Skloot, a science writer whose 2010 book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks brought Lacks story into the mainstream, the foundation provides financial assistance to people who were involved in historic scientific research without their knowledge, consent or benefit and their descendants. Read the Full Article. Does the hype around generative AI reflect its technology progress? Her mother died during childbirth when Lacks was just four years old. The samples were given to a researcher who cultured the cells and found that they had amazing resiliency. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks human tissue. Henrietta Lacks was a poor African-American raised on a tobacco farm in Virginia. For decades, doctors and scientists would continue to spread Henrietta's private medical records, reveal her name, and even publish her genome without ever asking her family for permission. Over the years, many patients similar to Henrietta Lacks have contributed their cells to help research. I decided not to let them." Under the microscope, a cell looks a lot like a fried egg: It has a white (the cytoplasm) that's full of water and proteins to keep it fed, and a yolk (the nucleus) that holds all the genetic information that makes you you. It all started when Loretta Pleasant, later Henrietta Lacks, was born on August 1, 1920, in Roanoke, Virginia. Lacks ended up with her maternal grandfather. . Immortality might seem like a concept right out of a science fiction movie. In fact, her cells still live on in labs across the world and are called the HeLa cell line. Early life Henrietta Lacks was born Loretta Pleasant on August 1, 1920, [1] [8] in Roanoke, Virginia, to Eliza Pleasant (ne Lacks) (1886-1924) and John "Johnny" Randall Pleasant (1881-1969). This video (1:39 min.) The NIH agreement allowed scientists to use a controlled database of the genome, as long as they agreed to a number of stipulations and also credited Lacks and her family in the acknowledgments sectionsof their research. I was a science journalist who referred to all things supernatural as "woo-woo stuff"; Deborah believed Henrietta's spirit lived on in her cells, controlling the life of anyone who crossed its paths. Why is Henrietta Lacks Important? adenocarcinoma: A type of cancer that begins in mucus producing glandular cells. Visit Huntsman Cancer Institutes Cancer Learning Center to learn how you can check outThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and find more resources about cancer. I asked. What he wanted us to understand was that cells are amazing things: There are about one hundred trillion of them in our bodies, each so small that several thousand could fit on the period at the end of this sentence. Even if researchers were to try and seek informed consent when building future human cell lines, they are often taken from exceptionally aggressive tumours like Lacks. The use of these cells is infinite, and their lifetime is eternal. .