#Hela Cells

[glitchyk]

I made a stupid joke about the bread starters that my sister has been using and I was like “so we’re just Henrietta Lacks-ing this stuff?” and she had no clue what I meant so I thanked her proceeded to ramble on about a book I read like TWO YEARS AGO about a woman named Henrietta Lacks of whole the immortal/ “HeLa” cells originated from and stuff that had to do with her family situation wise and all— snnsnsnsakaials I just rambled on about such a random topic for like half an hour 💀

My dad walked past and like I jokingly said “I’m teaching Jen science” and Jen was all “she is, and I’m enjoying it”

And than I gave my dad a very brief explanation of HeLa and Henrietta Lacks and some of the stuff with her family, since HE HAD NO CLUE EITHER

Bros

Bros please I’m asking this for my own sanity

I read “The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks” like forever ago but still have not forgotten this info

[adragonsfriend]

obscure concern for the day is "who was the source of HeLa cells in the star wars universe and were their cells stolen too?"

[microscope-world]

HeLa cells captured under the inverted microscope.

[sparrow-the-tired-lesbian]

Hi! :) What are some things you hope will happen in Loki s2 and what are some things you’re worried are gonna happen?

HOPES:

LOKIUS CANON LOKIUS CANON LOKIUS CANON

Loki being a total idiot

Sylvie being the milf we deserve

mobius being a lil dork

O.B. being cute

A Frigga appearance?

MAYBE A HELA APPEARANCE??? MAYBE???? PLEASE????? (I’ve got a cate blanchett thing)

FEARS:

More S*lki

Loki dying again

Pain

[a-sentient-cup]

Why wasn't it BIG tumb news when the HeLa court case got settled LAST YEAR. A significant part of modern medicine was a direct result of the stolen cells and the lack of compensation or settlement up until horrifyingly recently.

While i was in school this was still actively being fought. The audacity of the company to claim it was outside of the statute of limitations WHILE STILL BENEFITTING FROM IT IN THE ORDER OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS

Which luckily because of previous court precedents was already a null argument specifically because of them actively benefitting

The Lacks family says they may go after other companies that use the cells as well and i think they should

I hate how much of the medical system, not just the US but as a result worldwide. Is built on unremediated racism and many other prejudices that still permeate the medical systems at this very moment

This SHOULD have been a monumental occasion oh so high and mighty "be aware of racism" "fight for equity everywhere" tumblr. And yet i recall no boom in the topic within the week it was posted.

[disastertriowriting]

[cytioncls]

Exploring HEK293: Contributions to Molecular Biology

HEK293 cells, also known as Human Embryonic Kidney 293 cells, have become a cornerstone of modern molecular biology research. These cells, derived from human embryonic kidney tissue, have been extensively used in various applications, ranging from gene expression studies to drug discovery and development. In this comprehensive guest post, we will delve into the fascinating world of HEK293 cells and explore their significant contributions to the field of molecular biology.

[dr-whoopsie-daisy]

I started reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks months ago and had to step away for a while because someone I know was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

I picked up the book again today. I got to chapter 27 where a German virologist discovered the cause of cervical cancer was HPV-18 and HPV-16 (90% of cases) and how studying Henrietta Lacks' cells lead to the HPV vaccine.

I just received my last HPV vaccine (it's a 3 injection series over 6ish month) a few days ago.

It feels very strange to be so connected to this book. I'm a patient actively benefiting from research done on her cell line. I'm also a doctor who had informed consent drilled into my brain from day one. Not just informed consent but making sure the patient *understands* their rights to information, the diagnosis, treatment options, the ability to refuse any and all treatments, the right to a second opinion. On and on.

Page after page of this book is laying out patient privacy violations, broken ethics, a lack of record keeping, and complete disregard for the next of kin. That's the point though, all of this was legal from the beginning until the 80's and 90's in America.

It's a lot to grapple with. Research doctors injecting patients with cancer cells, taking blood from the Lacks family but never bothering to tell them why. The millions of dollars made from cultivating her cells.

I don't understand why this wasn't required reading for any of my classes for my biology degree, my medical ethics minor, or at any point in my doctoral program.

Informed consent was taught as the forgone conclusion but in reality had only been enforced federally for medicine and research for 30-40 years before I started my doctorate.

Many of my professors were old enough to have been in research programs before these laws were written.

[black-paraphernalia]

We at *BP family in the pass post a story of Mrs Henrietta Lacks story and how she and her family for generation were robbed by the scientific community for decades. The most important information to take away is that a single BLACK WOMAN DNA has contributed to modern medical breakthroughs and cures, and is still ongoing. There are a myriad of scientific developments due to Mrs Lacks -HELA CELLS as them called it. We are please to see that the family is getting restitution and reparations from yet again being robbed by them and covering up as them taken the credit and leaving the Black community/family in the dark and high and dry. We will reblog the original post.

ONCE AGAIN A BLACK WOMEN IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION

(The above is a *BP* commentary opinion)

BLACK PARAPHERNALIA DISCLAIMER - PLEASE READ

Family of Henrietta Lacks settles lawsuit with biotech giant, lawyer says

The family of Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman whose cancer cells were used without permission to form the basis of decades of scientific research, has reached a settlement with the biotech company Thermo Fisher Scientific.

The cells, known as HeLa cells, were taken from Lacks without her knowledge or consent in 1951 when she was seeking cervical cancer treatment at Johns Hopkins, in Baltimore. Doctors discovered that the cells doubled every 20 to 24 hours in the lab instead of dying. They were the first human cells that scientists successfully cloned, and they have been reproduced infinitely ever since.

Lacks herself died in 1951, but her cells continued to be used after her death in research that led to a series of medical advancements, including in the development of the polio vaccine and in treatments for cancer, HIV/AIDS, leukemia and Parkinson's disease. Lacks' family only found out about it decades later.

Lacks' story reached millions of Americans through the nonfiction bestseller "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," which was made into an HBO movie starring Oprah Winfrey as Lacks' daughter, Deborah.

In 2021, Lacks' estate filed a lawsuit against Thermo Fisher Scientific, alleging that the company was mass producing and selling tissue taken from Lacks even after it became well-known that the materials had been taken from her without her consent. The suit was filed exactly 70 years after Lacks' death.

"Thermo Fisher Scientific has known that HeLa cells were stolen from Ms. Lacks and chose to use her body for profit anyway," the lawsuit alleged. It has been previously reported that Thermo Fisher Scientific said they generate about $35 billion in annual revenue. In the lawsuit, Lacks' estate asked that the company "disgorge the full amount of its net profits obtained by commercializing the HeLa cell line to the Estate of Henrietta Lacks."

The suit also sought an order stopping the company from using the HeLa cells without the estate's permission. The terms of Tuesday's settlement were not made public, but Crump said in a news conference that both parties were "pleased" to have resolved the matter outside of court, CBS Baltimore reported. (except taken from KERRY BREEN CBS NEWS , 2023 )

INFORMATION OBTAIN FROM NATURE.COM FOR MORE READ CLICK HERE

SOME CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE HELA CELLS

-HeLa cells were first used to study the growth and spread of poliomyelitis virus, the cure of Polio

-HeLa cells have also been instrumental in the development of Human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccines.

-Over the years, HeLa cells have been infected with various types of viruses including HIV, Zika, herpes, and mumps

-HeLa cells have been used in a number of cancer studies, including those involving sex steroid hormones such as estradiol, estrogen, and estrogen proliferation.

-Hela cells contribute to scientists Joe Hin Tjio and Albert Levan to develop better techniques for staining and counting chromosomes.This was important for the study of developmental disorders such as down syndrome that involved the number of chromosomes.

-HeLa cells were sent on the first satellite and human space missions to determine the long term effects of space travel on living cells and tissue.

-HeLa cell line was derived for use in cancer research. and human papillomavirus 18 (HPV18) to human cervical cells created the HeLa genome, which is different from Henrietta Lacks’ genome in various ways,

-The complete genome of the HeLa cells was sequenced and published on 11 March 2013[46][47] without the Lacks family’s knowledge

-HeLa cells as a tool to uncover the machinery required and process used for invasion of human cells. Researchers have also investigated the stability of the virus’s genomic material in HeLa cells by comparing its genomic material with that of many other viruses. The use of HeLa cells in COVID-19 research has provided insights on the molecular mechanics of SARS-CoV-2019 and the components required for infection.

INFORMATION OBTAINED HERE

A LASTING CONTRIBUTION TO THE WORLD

When Henrietta Lacks and her cells alerted the world to the existence of immortal human cells, opportunities arose for research and medical treatment development.

Today, her cells continue to serve academic and industrial institutions. So much so that she has been described as the Mother of Modern Medicine in a painting by artist Kadir Nelson in 2017.

The use of HeLa cells in COVID-19 research is a testament to Henrietta Lacks’s lasting contribution to provide microscopic tools for scientific discoveries that billions have benefitted from thus far and will benefit from in the future to come.

INFORMATION OBTAIN FROM NATURE.COM FOR MORE READ CLICK HERE

SOME CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE HELA CELLS

-HeLa cells were first used to study the growth and spread of poliomyelitis virus, the cure of Polio

-HeLa cells have also been instrumental in the development of Human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccines.

-Over the years, HeLa cells have been infected with various types of viruses including HIV, Zika, herpes, and mumps

-HeLa cells have been used in a number of cancer studies, including those involving sex steroid hormones such as estradiol, estrogen, and estrogen proliferation.

-Hela cells contribute to scientists Joe Hin Tjio and Albert Levan to develop better techniques for staining and counting chromosomes.This was important for the study of developmental disorders such as down syndrome that involved the number of chromosomes.

-HeLa cells were sent on the first satellite and human space missions to determine the long term effects of space travel on living cells and tissue.

-HeLa cell line was derived for use in cancer research. and human papillomavirus 18 (HPV18) to human cervical cells created the HeLa genome, which is different from Henrietta Lacks’ genome in various ways,

-The complete genome of the HeLa cells was sequenced and published on 11 March 2013 without the Lacks family’s knowledge

-HeLa cells as a tool to uncover the machinery required and process used for invasion of human cells. Researchers have also investigated the stability of the virus’s gnomic material in HeLa cells by comparing its genomic material with that of many other viruses.

The use of HeLa cells in COVID-19 research has provided insights on the molecular mechanics of SARS-CoV-2019 and the components required for infection.

INFORMATION OBTAINED HERE

A LASTING CONTRIBUTION TO THE WORLD

When Henrietta Lacks and her cells alerted the world to the existence of immortal human cells, opportunities arose for research and medical treatment development.

Today, her cells continue to serve academic and industrial institutions. So much so that she has been described as the Mother of Modern Medicine in a painting by artist Kadir Nelson in 2017.

The use of HeLa cells in COVID-19 research is a testament to Henrietta Lacks’s lasting contribution to provide microscopic tools for scientific discoveries that billions have benefitted from thus far and will benefit from in the future to come.

[uvmagazine]

The family of Henrietta Lacks has reached a settlement with a science and technology company that it says used cells taken without Lacks' consent in the 1950s to develop products it later sold for a profit.

Lacks was being treated for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in 1951 when doctors removed cells from her tumor without her knowledge or permission.

Her cells — now known as HeLa cells — were the world's first capable of replicating outside of the body and they have since been used for a variety of scientific breakthroughs, including research about the human genome and the development of the polio and COVID-19 vaccines.

The settlement amount and terms are confidential.

[mixotrophics]

book: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot

there are some books I consider "Must Reads" , even if they're Tough Reads. This is one of them -- especially if you're any way involved in medical/biological/biochem fields , this book is Required reading, in a way. it's tough, i did cry reading chapter 33. It's worth it.

For those who don't know her story: Henrietta Lacks was a poor black woman working as a tobacco farmer in the early 1900s. A lot of her life's story was lost or buried or hidden (from her, and her family), & Skloot writes this book in collaboration with, and discussion with, Henrietta's living descendants. Henrietta is perhaps the most important person in the modern cell-biology/medical field, yet nobody knew her name, until recently. She died from aggressive cervical cancer: a cancer which was biopsied, and found to be "immortal" (infinitely-reproducing themselves) in cell culture. These immortal cancer cells have served as test subjects for countless advances, including vaccines and treatments for polio, AIDS, and cancer. For the longest time, people knew only of her cells (HeLa cells) and the multimillion-dollar industry of growing and selling them, and never of Henrietta herself. Moreover, financial inequalities and racism led to her descendants (until recently) not staying in school very long, so that they did not know of the HeLa cells until long after their commercialization, and they could not understand the science around it. Skloot spends time with Deborah (Dale) Lacks to try and find the lost parts of the Lacks family history, to make sense of the HeLa cells, and to seek closure.

It's a harrowing & necessary book, as described on the cover. Countless times the Lacks family is taken advantage of, the legacy pre-Nuremberg-Code , racially-segregated medical care in the U.S.A a specter throughout. The injustices compound, HeLa having saved countless lives and made the careers of many scientists, but time and again the living Lacks family cannot afford education nor healthcare.

The book is a Must Read for me because much of it is told by the Lackses and the emphasis is on the people involved, while the scientific contributions are still discussed. The book gives space for the living Lackses to express their own feelings towards the HeLa cells, to express how they have made peace with things, on what they would like as reparations, on how they feel exploited on many fronts (by the medical industry, also by people trying to force them to become leaders of social movements around tissue/cell ownership ).

there are a bunch of necessary warnings: racism, medical malpractice, human experimentation, ableism, asylum / psych ward, psych abuse, sexual assault, cocsa, incest, spousal & child abuse . it's perhaps not a book tackled as a lightweight read. But I would encourage reading it , & sitting with everything it discusses.

[mjcsdy]

weight loss and cancer - cancer and dementia

Henrietta's Cells and the Mystery of Cancer

The 1950s in the United States was a period of intense racial discrimination. At that time, Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland was the only hospital that treated poor African Americans. In February 1951, a woman named Henrietta, a black woman in her 30s, visited Johns Hopkins Hospital. She had come for an examination because she had blood stains on her panties. The doctor discovered a tumor in her uterus and took a sample for testing. The test results revealed a malignant tumor, and Henrietta was diagnosed with cervical cancer. She passed away just three months later due to cancer. However, the cancer cells sampled from her did not die. Typically, cancer cells die within 3-4 days in a test tube, but these cancer cells continued to grow. The hospital named these immortal cancer cells "HeLa cells" after Henrietta.

History and Contributions of HeLa Cells

Although HeLa cells are cancer cells, their unique properties have been utilized in various medical research endeavors. Numerous cell lines derived from these cells have been essential tools in medical research. As a result, HeLa cells have led to various medical advancements, including the polio vaccine. The contributions of HeLa cells have been endless, resulting in over 11,000 patents and more than 70,000 research papers. This led to two scientists receiving the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Cancer Growth and Human Health

Cancer cells require a large amount of nutrients during rapid proliferation. Typically, the body receives nutrients through blood vessels. However, if blood vessels do not enlarge sufficiently as cancer cells attempt to grow, their growth rate may decrease. In such cases, cancer cells may form new blood vessels to obtain more nutrients. Cancer can occur anywhere there are cells, but it primarily arises in areas with high growth rates. For example, brain tumors primarily occur in children because the brain mainly grows during childhood. Therefore, when young people develop cancer, cancer cells also grow rapidly, leading to a higher mortality rate. Conversely, cancer grows more slowly in older individuals due to slower growth rates. Thus, even with the same cancer, older individuals may have longer survival periods. Chemotherapy typically targets rapidly proliferating cancer cells. As a result, hair follicles may also be considered cancer cells, leading to hair loss. Cancer cells consume tremendous amounts of nutrients, so unexpected weight loss is one of the early symptoms. Therefore, it is advisable to seek medical attention if unexpected weight loss occurs.

Prevention and Treatment of Cancer

Cancer is a major cause of death in developed countries. However, in many cases, cancer can be prevented through early detection and proper treatment. Additionally, various methods exist for cancer treatment, with chemotherapy playing a crucial role in suppressing the rapid growth of cancer cells. However, caution is needed as chemotherapy may also affect normal cells.

Relationship Between Cancer and Dementia

There is an interesting connection between cancer and dementia. Research has shown that if one occurs, the probability of the other occurring decreases. This result was obtained from a study conducted over eight years with approximately 3,000 patients aged 65 and older. However, the exact reason for this remains unclear. Some researchers suggest a connection between dementia, a neurodegenerative disease, and the proliferation of cancer cells. This research is still in its early stages and requires further investigation.

Conclusion

Discoveries like HeLa cells demonstrate the potential to revolutionize medicine and science. While there is still much research needed to understand and prevent cancer's growth mechanisms, such research is expected to have a positive impact on human health and welfare. Efforts to understand the relationship between cancer and dementia and to prevent and treat both diseases should continue.

reference :

[99science]

HeLa Cells: The Immortal Cell Line of Cancer Research

HeLa cells are a population of human cells taken from Henrietta Lacks in 1951 during her cervical cancer treatment. Most human cells typically die or divide a limited number of times outside the body. However, HeLa cells possess an ability to multiply endlessly in lab cultures. This makes them invaluable for scientific research, offering a readily available and consistent source of human cells…

[mellifluousoctopus]

TIL that HeLa cells carry HPV

[airbrickwall]