HeLa Cells of Henrietta Lacks

Author by : Rebecca Skloot
Languange Used : en
Release Date : 2010-02-02
Publisher by : Crown

ISBN :

Description : #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The story of modern medicine and bioethics—and, indeed, race relations—is refracted beautifully, and movingly.”—Entertainment Weekly NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM HBO® STARRING OPRAH WINFREY AND ROSE BYRNE • ONE OF THE “MOST INFLUENTIAL” (CNN), “DEFINING” (LITHUB), AND “BEST” (THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER) BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS • WINNER OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE HEARTLAND PRIZE FOR NONFICTION NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Entertainment Weekly • O: The Oprah Magazine • NPR • Financial Times • New York • Independent (U.K.) • Times (U.K.) • Publishers Weekly • Library Journal • Kirkus Reviews • Booklist • Globe and Mail Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine: The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family—past and present—is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of. Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah. Deborah was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Had they killed her to harvest her cells? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance? Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences....

Author by : Rebecca Skloot
Languange Used : en
Release Date : 2017
Publisher by : Broadway Paperbacks

ISBN :

Description : Now an HBO(R) Film starring Oprah Winfrey and Rose Byrne. Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they'd weigh more than 50 million metric tons--as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb's effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the "colored" ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta's small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia--a land of wooden slave quarters, faith healings, and voodoo--to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells. Henrietta's family did not learn of her "immortality" until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family--past and present--is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of. Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family--especially Henrietta's daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother's cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn't her children afford health insurance? Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences....

Author by : Ron Lacks
Languange Used : en
Release Date : 2020-09
Publisher by : Bookbaby

ISBN :

Description : New Author Ron Lacks, tells a behind the scenes story of what happened in the past 9 years to his family in his new book Henrietta Lacks The Untold Story Ron Lacks is the oldest grandson of Henrietta Lacks. He takes you on the inside of a story that has haunted him for the past 9 years! This book will definitely answer your questions as to how the family is really doing now. From Clover to Baltimore... giving you an inside look at what happen behind closed doors, that ultimately divided a once strong family....

Author by : Michael Gold
Languange Used : en
Release Date : 1986-01-01
Publisher by : SUNY Press

ISBN :

Description : A Conspiracy of Cells presents the first full account of one of medical science's more bizarre and costly mistakes. On October 4, 1951, a young black woman named Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer. That is, most of Henrietta Lacks died. In a laboratory dish at the Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, a few cells taken from her fatal tumor continued to live--to thrive, in fact. For reasons unknown, her cells, code-named "HeLa," grew more vigorously than any other cells in culture at the time. Long-time science reporter Michael Gold describes in graphic detail how the errant HeLa cells spread, contaminating and overwhelming other cell cultures, sabotaging research projects, and eluding detection until they had managed to infiltrate scientific laboratories worldwide. He tracks the efforts of geneticist Walter Nelson-Rees to alert a sceptical scientific community to the rampant HeLa contamination. And he reconstructs Nelson-Rees's crusade to expose the embarrassing mistakes and bogus conclusions of researchers who unknowingly abetted HeLa's spread....

Author by : Tanya Byron
Languange Used : en
Release Date : 2015-04-07
Publisher by : Flatiron Books

ISBN :

Description : The gripping, unforgettable, and deeply affecting story of a young clinical psychologist learning how she can best help her patients, The Skeleton Cupboard is a riveting and revealing memoir that offers fascinating insight into the human mind. In The Skeleton Cupboard, Professor Tanya Byron recounts the stories of the patients who most influenced her career as a mental health practitioner. Spanning her years of training—years in which Byron was forced her to contend with the harsh realities of the lives of her patients and confront a dark moment in her own family's past—The Skeleton Cupboard is a compelling and compassionate account of how much health practitioners can learn from those they treat. Among others, we meet Ray, a violent sociopath desperate to be shown tenderness and compassion; Mollie, a talented teenager intent on starving herself; and Imogen, a twelve-year old so haunted by a secret that she's intent on killing herself. Byron brings the reader along as she uncovers the reasons each of these individuals behave the way they do, resulting in a thrilling, compulsively readable psychological mystery that sheds light on mental illness and what its treatment tells us about ourselves....

Author by : Nishi Singh
Languange Used : en
Release Date : 2014-10-17
Publisher by :

ISBN :

Description : Rebecca Skloot and her best-seller, 'The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks' has created a lot of interest in the immortal HeLa cells that were taken from a 31 year old black woman called Henrietta Lacks without her family's consent at the Johns Hopkins Hospital at Baltimore in 1951. She describes the story of how Henrietta Lacks died and how her cells were sent around the world for medical research. She goes through the life stories of Henrietta and the Lacks family and the pain they endured when they found out about Henrietta's cells. Skloot's narration of the entire account is powerful, emotional, painful and even heart breaking. Her book has become a notable science reading for high school children and science undergraduates in the United States. And rightly so, Henrietta's story is a case of medical racism, violation of ethical obligation, segregation, ignorance, poverty and painful American history. Today, HeLa cells are the most widely used cell line in the world and has been instrumental in many of the world's medical discoveries. It was the first cells to be sent to space, has helped eradicate polio and has been used in 70,000 medical studies including the development of drugs for herpes, Parkinson's disease, leukaemia and influenza. The title 'The immortal life of Henriette Lacks' actually refers to the immortalization of cancer cells and we look at how HeLa cells are cultured and are able to divide indefinitely. This book looks at the life of Henrietta Lacks and describes HeLa cells in more detail. Topics covered in this book: Table of contents What are HeLa cells? Where did HeLa cells come from? Who was Henrietta Lacks? Epithelial adenocarcinoma and HeLa Life of Henrietta The family of Henrietta Lacks Dr. George Otto Gey - The man behind HeLa cells How are HeLa cells grown in culture? Why are HeLa cells immortal? HeLa cell controversy HeLa genome data use agreement Discoveries made from HeLa cells Ethical issues behind the use of HeLa cells About the book "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" Review of "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot Summary and characteristics of the HeLa cell line Timeline in the life of the HeLa cell References and further reading...

Author by : 2016-2017 Middle School Group Baltimore County, MD Chapter, Jack and Jill of America, Inc.
Languange Used : en
Release Date : 2017-04-29
Publisher by : Lulu.com

ISBN :

Description : The Life and Cells of Henrietta Lacks By: Jenna Adjei, Maya Anglin, Leah Daniels, Joshua Dunmore, Julian Dunmore, Francis Fynnwilliams, Sophia Geddie, Aaron Hammond, Kai Hammond, Simone Hammond, Sydney Herring, Isaiah Jolivet, Nia Jolivet, Mackenzie Jones, Kourtney Pryor, Kymberly Pugh, Ariana Sims This is the story of Henrietta Lacks told from the viewpoint of children, specifically middle schoolers in the Baltimore County Chapter of Jack and Jill of America, Incorporated. Their research and thoughts shed a unique light on the story of Henrietta Lacks, a woman who involuntarily and un-knowingly provided her cells for research; those cells have paved the way for numerous medical breakthroughs in leukemia, polio, the flu, cancer, AIDS, and other illnesses....