Henrietta Lack's contribution
Toshia Milam
Jacksonville State University
Henrietta Lack's contribution
“Henrietta Lacks was born on August 1, 1920, in Roanoke, Virginia.” (Biography.com editors, 2017). Henrietta was an African American tobacco farmer born under the name Loretta Pleasant. Henrietta was sent to live with her grandfather after the death of her mother in 1924. For unknown reasons, Henrietta changed her name after the death of her mother. During her stay she shared a room with her first cousin David “Day” Lacks, who would later become the father of her 5 children. Henrietta mothered Lawrence, Elsie, David Jr., Deborah, and Joseph. Before learning she was pregnant with her fifth child, she began to experience abdominal pain and abnormal bleeding (Biography.com editors, 2017). On January 29th, 1951, Henrietta had her husband drive her to John Hopkins Hospital where she saw Dr. Howard Jones (Skloot, 2010). Dr. Jones diagnosed Henrietta with …show more content…
Henrietta passed away at John Hopkins hospital. Henrietta’s’ cells made their way to a researcher named Dr. George Otto Gey who noticed that these cells possessed an unusual quality (Duster & Dahlgren, 2017). These “HeLa cells” were durable and replicated very quickly (Duster & Dahlgren, 2017). Dr. Gey isolated and replicated one of these cells to make the first cultures from the HeLa strain. The cells were used by Dr. Jonas Salk to develop the polio vaccine. The cells are also attributed to advances in in vitro fertilization, chemotherapy, cloning, gene mapping, lactose digestion studies, mosquito mating studies, HPV vaccine, the effects of the atom bomb, the effects of working in a sewer, space missions, human longevity, and the development of drugs to treat HIV, herpes, leukemia, influenza, hemophilia, and Parkinson’s disease (Skloot,
Toshia Milam
Jacksonville State University
Henrietta Lack's contribution
“Henrietta Lacks was born on August 1, 1920, in Roanoke, Virginia.” (Biography.com editors, 2017). Henrietta was an African American tobacco farmer born under the name Loretta Pleasant. Henrietta was sent to live with her grandfather after the death of her mother in 1924. For unknown reasons, Henrietta changed her name after the death of her mother. During her stay she shared a room with her first cousin David “Day” Lacks, who would later become the father of her 5 children. Henrietta mothered Lawrence, Elsie, David Jr., Deborah, and Joseph. Before learning she was pregnant with her fifth child, she began to experience abdominal pain and abnormal bleeding (Biography.com editors, 2017). On January 29th, 1951, Henrietta had her husband drive her to John Hopkins Hospital where she saw Dr. Howard Jones (Skloot, 2010). Dr. Jones diagnosed Henrietta with …show more content…
Henrietta passed away at John Hopkins hospital. Henrietta’s’ cells made their way to a researcher named Dr. George Otto Gey who noticed that these cells possessed an unusual quality (Duster & Dahlgren, 2017). These “HeLa cells” were durable and replicated very quickly (Duster & Dahlgren, 2017). Dr. Gey isolated and replicated one of these cells to make the first cultures from the HeLa strain. The cells were used by Dr. Jonas Salk to develop the polio vaccine. The cells are also attributed to advances in in vitro fertilization, chemotherapy, cloning, gene mapping, lactose digestion studies, mosquito mating studies, HPV vaccine, the effects of the atom bomb, the effects of working in a sewer, space missions, human longevity, and the development of drugs to treat HIV, herpes, leukemia, influenza, hemophilia, and Parkinson’s disease (Skloot,