Download Name________________________________ Common Core: HeLa

Name________________________________
Common Core: HeLa
On January 29, 1951, Henrietta Lacks went to Johns Hopkins Hospital because she felt
a lump inside her. Johns Hopkins was her only choice for a hospital, since it was the only one in
a close proximity to them that treated black patients. Howard Jones, new doctor, examined
Henrietta and the lump in her cervix. It was like nothing he had ever seen before. He cut off a
small part of the tumor and sent it to the pathology lab. Soon after, Jones discovered Henrietta
had a malignant epidermoid carcinoma of the cervix Stage 1 (cervical cancer). Lacks underwent
radiation and X-ray treatments to try to stop the cancer. Though she received treatment and blood
transfusions, she died on October 4, 1951, at 12:30 A.M. at the age of thirty-one.
During her radiation treatments for the tumor, a small part of Henrietta's cervix was
taken off—a healthy part and a cancerous part—without her permission. The cells from her
cervix were given to Dr. George Otto Gey. Dr. Gey discovered that Henrietta's cells did
something he'd never seen before: They could be kept alive and multiply. Before Henrietta,
human 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. Some cells in Henrietta's cancerous tissue
sample behaved differently than others. Gey was able to isolate one specific cell, multiply it, and
start a cell line. Gey named the sample "HeLa", after the initial letters of Henrietta Lacks' name,
to protect her identity. As the first human cells grown in a lab that were "immortal" (did not die
after a few cell divisions), they could then be used for conducting many experiments. This
represented an enormous boon to medical and biological research.
By 1954, HeLa 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. 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, drug safety, gene mapping 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.
In her 2010 book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot documents the
histories of both the HeLa cell line and the Lacks family. Henrietta's husband, David Lacks, was
told little following her death. 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 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.
Millions, if not billions of dollars have been made using Henrietta’s cells. Untold
numbers of lives have been saved thanks to discoveries made from studying HeLa. Courts have
ruled that once tissue is removed from someone’s body, it no longer belongs to them. To date, the
Lacks family lives below the poverty level, and has received no money from any medicine,
product, or patent Henrietta’s cells made possible.
1. The cells taken from Henrietta that eventually became the HeLa cell line were clearly special.
What properties of these kindsof cells do you KNOW were responsible for their ability to
continually divide? Which properties are still a mystery, even to scientists?
2. It is ironic that cells that were originally diseased became a tool for saving lives. Choose ONE
of the ways HeLa cells have been used to help people, and discuss how having human cells to
experiment on was so important for this line of research.
3. Drug companies spend millions of dollars on research, and in turn make millions of dollars in
profits from the medicines that save lives. Do you think people whose cells or genes are found to
be valuable should be paid? Support your answer using information provided in the passage.