HeLa

It mainly focuses on the medical process behind culturing Henrietta’s cancer cells, named HeLa cells, and how Henrietta and her family faced obscurity from the medical community. This is unique to me because it not only touches with medical ethics and but it also provides some scientific insight into how these cells function and how they can…

creating a cell line called HeLa cells. After Lacks’ death, her cells were cloned and studied without her consent. The cells obtained from her were special because they were unusually strong cancer cells which could grow rapidly and indefinitely in the right medium (“Quick Guide to HeLa Cells,” n.d.). HeLa cells are not bound by the Hayflick limit which states that “the human cell is limited in the number of times it can divide” (“Hayflick Limit Theory,” 2017). While HeLa cells have made great…

HeLa cells were the basis of cell culture in the latter half of the 20th century. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot explores the scientific achievements and ethical issues relating to HeLa cells, as well as the connection HeLa cells have with the Lacks family. When Henrietta Lacks was being treated for cervical cancer, the doctors shaved parts of her tumor off and sent them to a lab, where her cancerous cells never stopped dividing. She never consented to have her cells…

Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot first presents us with various descriptions about HeLa cells, such as “immortal” and “never dies”. Thus, these distinct attributes that tremendously prolonged the life of of HeLa cells make the cells become one of the most significant tools in medical fields, such as cancer treatment, vaccine development, etc. As a person who learned biology in the past, Skloot knew the facts about HeLa cells, and they conduce to the whole world; nevertheless, Skloot found that…

that she had something more than an STD. What the doctor discovered, was a cancerous tumor, but what they all didn’t realize was that Henrietta had the key to immortal life living within her. Henrietta’s cells became known in the science world as “HeLa” and are helping researchers around the world learn about human cells and how to develop treatments for various genetic, chronic and difficult diseases. Rebecca Skloot became interested after hearing about these immortal cells as a student.. Her…

body is compared to the population of one village. How could this be? Rebecca Skloot, the author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, first started learning about HeLa cells in school, but was more curious to know the origin of the cells. Skloot was determined to find out more about the famous HeLa cells and where they came from. HeLa cells opened up a huge opportunity in the science and medical field that nobody could pass up. Since that time, there have been significant changes in…

“The Life of Henrietta Lacks” raises many controversies between ethics and science due to the fact that ethics was not yet a crucial role in science. Scientists have been experimenting on Henrietta’s cells (HeLa) cells for decades, and even now the cells are being used in labs. Since the HeLa cells divide indefinitely, scientists can study and analyze them without running out of supplies. Over the years, these cells have greatly contributed to science, but more specifically, the vaccine for…

On February 8th of 1951, the immortality of HeLa cells was discovered. Such breakthrough caused an outburst in scientific development and the release of ways to cure millions of diseases, including, but not limited to, polio, cancer, leukemia, and hemophilia. Following this further, Rebecca Skloot is able to describe the person behind the HeLa cells and the interminable process that she had to go through in order to attain enough information to write about Henrietta Lacks and her immortal cells.…

jump started the research being done on the cells. HeLa cells proved to be extremely helpful in the efficient and economic testing of the polio vaccine. This led to cell production at the Tuskeegee institute. Where they grew up to twenty thousand test tubes each week. These cells were being sold to other scientists interested in research. Microbiological Associates launched the first industrial scale, for profit cell distribution center, growing HeLa cells and shipping them to scientists. This…

Henrietta was a strong woman who helped do some amazing things. Even though her family was never told the book shows their side of the story and proves a point about certain things that needed to be done for science. The book is used to tell not only how HeLa was made but what also happened after it was made. The book is specifically designed for a reader to learn about a woman who contributed to science without her knowledge and what was to…