HeLa

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    HeLa is a cell type in an immortal cell line used in scientific research. It is the oldest and most commonly used human cell line. There was a story behind the HeLa cell besides that fact that it was an immortal cell. This immortal cell once came from a mortal cell; an African American woman by the name of Henrietta Lacks. She visited John Hopkins Hospital after an abnormality in her cervix, later found out she had cervical cancer. After the death of Henrietta, scientists did extensive research on her tumor. This was the rise of the immortal cell, meanwhile Henrietta’s family had no knowledge of the research. When the family uncovered the truth about the HeLa cell, many questions accumulated from her family. They believed that Henrietta’s cells…

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    Hela Cells

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    HeLa cells are an immortal cell culture line that have been used to help develop the polio vaccine, understand the effects of radiation, cancer, viruses, and helped lead to advances in cloning and gene mapping. These cells came from one terminally ill woman, Henrietta Lack, who didn’t even know they had been taken from her until she was on her death bed. The author, Rebecca Skloot details the origin and use of the HeLa cell line in her book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta lacks”. Henrietta was…

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    Hela Cells Essay

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    possible types of research that would have otherwise been infeasible. They are the most widely used cell line in biomedical research, and HeLa cells have been referred to in more than 74,000 scientific publications as of 2013. Dr. Walter Nelson-Rees of the National Cancer Institute says, "You can do with cells of a human being what you cannot do with a human being himself" ("Ebony," 2015). For example, HeLa cells are used to test human sensitivity of radiation, toxic substances, glue, tape,…

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    Original Hela Cells

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    Though some might not know a thing about them, HeLa cells have affected an abundance of people. Original HeLa cells were cut from the cervix of the African American woman known as Henrietta Lacks. Born as Loretta Lacks, Henrietta was born in Roanoke, Virginia on August 1, 1920. At the age of 30, Henrietta was diagnosed with “Epidermoid carcinoma of the cervix, Stage I” (24). Her cancer could not be defeated and Henrietta died October 4, 1951. Before her death, Dr. George Gey of George Hopkins…

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    Scientists were halted in many parts of their research and trials due to the concerns raised by the usage of live test subjects, whether they were human or animal. With the introduction of the HeLa cell line, the research could get back on track. The HeLa cells were abundant, meaning that the scientists could experiment and run tests without worrying about test subject availability or consent. Also, the effect that an experiment would have on a live subject was the source of a moral debate. But…

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    The History Of Hela Cells

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    Henrietta’s cells were growing at a great speed, they doubled over night. That day she cut the cell in half and those two halves grew overnight. Every 24 hours the cells where growing like crabgrass. It seemed like her cancer cells where unstoppable, as long as they had food and warmth. Because of their adaption to growth in tissue cultures plates, HeLa cells are difficult to grow. In 1952, researchers injected HeLa cells into everything, from mumps to herpes. That year was the worst year of…

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    The medical world was buzzing with optimism at the news of HeLa cells. The potential of this discovery seemed limitless. Immediately, countless experiments and research were being carried out. The most prominent was research based on the theory that cancer was caused by a virus. Curtis narrates the tale of two scientists who decided to test this theory by conducting experiments on prisoners in the Ohio State Penitentiary. These experiments involved injecting the prisoners with HeLa cells under…

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    HeLa cells are a unique strain of cancerous cells obtained from the cancerous cervical tissue of Henrietta Lacks, who perished to the disease on October 4, 1951. HeLa cells are unique because they are “immortal”. HeLa cells are immortal because they do not experience programmed cell death like normal cells would, allowing the HeLa cells to replicate infinitely without experiencing degeneration of genetic material. It is suspected that Henrietta's human papilloma virus and syphilis played a…

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    Hela Cell Research Essay

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    The medical field has evolved a lot since the 1950’s, nobody could argue against that. We’ve sent people into space, cloned organisms, and discovered a lot about how the human body works. Every one of those momentous discoveries was helped along by the discovery of “HeLa” cells. HeLa cells are named after a woman named Henrietta Lacks who died in 1951. She was not a genius researcher, nor was she a doctor. She was a simple, uneducated, black woman who lived well below the poverty level. She…

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    is turn of a gene that is a tumor suppressor and the HeLa cells tested positive for this HPV virus. While this discovery provided some light on the mystery of Henritta's cause of cancer, it still could not lead to any clues on the uniqueness of Henrietta’s cells. Her cells and the way they have been manipulated and used in the scientific community brings on the topic of immortality. When trying to understand the HeLa cells impact, it is important to realize that Henrietta’s cells were looked…

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