Henrietta Lacks: Her Cells In The 1950's And Today

Henrietta Lacks died in the 1950’s but her cells are still alive today. You will learn how her cells are still alive and what her cells have been used for and what they are being used for.

Henrietta Lacks was born in Roanoke, Virginia. She was a poor woman who worked as a southern tobacco farmer, she worked in the same farm as her ancestors, and had a middle school education( "Five Reasons Henrietta Lacks is the Most Important Woman ..." ). Her children were Joseph Lacks, David Lacks jr., Elsie Lacks, Deborah Lacks, and Lawrence Lacks("The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot."). In 1949 she was diagnosed with cervical cancer, her treatment was at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Henrietta died of an unusual aggressive

These cells (nicknamed HeLa to protect Henriettas identity) reproduced infinitely like no other. George Gey put HeLa in culture which is cells that are removed from a plant or animal then are put into an artificial environment that is sterile warm and fed with the utmost of vigilance with medium(Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

). Medium what the cells are fed with were made up of multiple things, because scientists back then used all kinds of things for medium but George Gey used chicken blood, special salts and placenta(Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

). The biggest challenge was keeping the cells from contamination, George’s wife was a surgical nurse which was very helpful in keeping things sterile("Henrietta Lacks, HeLa cells, and cell culture contamination."). His next challenge was where to put them to grow he hand blew his test tubes, he also created a machine that kept the fluid at a constant but subtle speed at one turn per hour("George Otto Gey - Cancer Research." ). This roller tube technique is still used today. Since her cells are immortal scientist had more time to experiment on them and less time keeping them alive. HeLa’s cells launched a multimillion dollar industry, yet her family never saw any profits. Her cells have been bought and sold by the billions. The Lacks family still cannot afford health insurance(Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta

HeLa has helped our world in many ways, as many as 70,000 medical studies and even more till this day. Her cells have been very needful in the development of drugs for herpes leukemia influenza (flu) and Parkinson’s disease. They have been used in many things like lactose digestion and mosquito mating. Before HeLa cells scientists spent more time keeping cells alive than actual research, an endless supply of HeLa freed up time for that(Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

).The cells reproduce a new generation every 24 hours and never stop. 1952 was the worst year of the polio epidemic HeLa cells were used to test the vaccine that saved and protected millions. A chemical was spilt on HeLa that spreaded them out enough for scientist to see that humans have 46 chromosomes instead of 48. Lack’s cells used an enzyme called telomerase that repair their DNA in other words that make them immortal. HeLa’s cells were vital in cloning, gene mapping and vitro fertilization. Cloning is organisms that are exact genetic copies. Gene Mapping (also called linkage mapping) can offer firm evidence that a disease transmitted from parent to child is linked to one or more gene. Gene Mapping also provides clues about which chromosome contains the gene and precisely where it lies on that chromosome. Vitro Fertilization is the process of fertilization