Research Papet - 1558 Words

(Henrietta Lacks)HeLa Cell Lines Medical researchers use laboratory-grown human cells to learn the intricacies of how cells work and test theories about the causes and treatment of diseases. The cell lines they need are â€Å"immortal†Ã¢â‚¬â€they can grow indefinitely, be frozen for decades, divided into different batches and shared among scientists. In 1951, a scientist at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, created the first immortal human cell line with a tissue sample taken from a young black woman with cervical cancer. Those cells, called HeLa cells, quickly became invaluable to medical research-though their donor remained a mystery for decades. In her new book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, journalist Rebecca Skloot tracks†¦show more content†¦Blood from human placenta. (The placenta, which nurtures the developing fetus, contains powerful hormones and a host of viruses and bacteria, as yet not fully investigated.) 2. Beef embryo extract (the ground-up remains of a three-week-old unborn cattle embryo. 3. Fresh chicken plasma obtained from the blood of a live chicken heart. For some unknown reason, Henriettas cancer cells continued to grow vigorously. The cells did not age. Instead, if fed properly they could live and multiply indefinitely. Amazingly, her new tissue culture cell line proved to be immortal. These malignant cells became the first successful human tissue culture cell line in medical history-the now famous HeLa cell line commemorating the legendary Henrietta Lacks. Gold claims the cell line brought revolutionary changes (as well as havoc) into the field of cancer virus research. Viruses could be now seeded onto glass tubes containing sheets of live cells; and for the first time, virologists could directly observe the effects of viral infection on living cells. HeLa cells proved so hardy that when passed around the world to various laboratories over the next few decades, the immortal cells frequently contaminated other tissue culture cells lines used in cancer and cancer virus research. Henrietta Lacks: The Godmother of Virology Also on February 5, 2010, a review was posted of a new book entitled The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by