To take a short break from the unfolding mystery…
It turns out scientists around the world have been using cell cultures in their experiments that are all decended from the same cell sample taken from dying American woman Henrietta Lacks back in 1951.
“While she was in Hopkins’ care, researchers took a fragment of Lacks’ tumor and sliced it into little cubes, which they bathed in nutrients and placed in an incubator. The cells, dubbed “HeLa” for Henrietta Lacks, multiplied as no other cells outside the human body had before, doubling their numbers daily. Their dogged growth spawned a breakthrough in cell research; never before could investigators reliably experiment on such cell cultures because they would weaken and die before meaningful results could be obtained. On the day of Henrietta’s death, the head of Hopkins’ tissue-culture research lab, Dr. George Gey, went before TV cameras, held up a tube of HeLa cells, and announced that a new age of medical research had begun–one that, someday, could produce a cure for cancer.”
Those same cells have now become so ubiquitous in labs around the world they’re as familiar as white mice or test tubes. They’re so resilient researchers have developed a special set of protocols to prevent other cell camples from becoming contaminated with HeLa cells.
What’s slightly horrfying to me is that the scientists at John Hopkin’s never asked for or received Lacks’ permission to use her cells in medical experiements. They also have never really ackowledged the massive contribution this one woman has made to medical research. I mean, I can sort of understand their reasoning at the time; after all, the Tuskagee Syphillis Experiment was actually still going on at this stage, so it’s no suprise not much thought was given to Lacks’ wishes, who was “just” a poor negro woman with cervical cancer. The subsequent lack of ackowledgement is sad, but not unexpected from a beurecratical machine like John Hopkin’s.
But the thing that really freaks me out? From that original, small chunk of flesh taken from Lacks back in the 50s, millions of diferent samples have been propagated in the decades since, in labs around he world. There’s literally tonnes of them out there. There is more of Henrietta Lacks alive in the world today than there ever was when she was actually alive. Several times more.
Holy SHIT, science.
