HeLa Cells Mind Map

FISH

John Moore

A Man named Christopher Lengauer, a cancer reasercher at John Hopkins, used HeLa cells to develop FISH. FISH stands for fluorescence in situ hybridization. What FISH does is paint chromosomes with different colours of dye and shine them under UV light to see them more clearly. Not only does it look pretty, it also helps researchers like Lengauer see detailed information about the chromosome (Page 234)

HeLa cells in Space

in 1976 a man named John Moore was diagnosed with "Hairy cell leukemia". He was reffered to a cancer researcher who worked at UCLA named David Golde, Golde said to Moore that his best course of action was to just remove the spleen that was infected with hairy cell leukemia, and thats what they did. 7 years later, Golde sent a letter to Moore asking for his consent to use his cells. Moore kept saying no, but Golde Kept pushing. It turns out, Golde was using the cells from Moores spleen in a cell line named "Mo". Golde patented and starting selling and distributing the cells without his knowledge.

researchers said that these cells could help create a vaccine for the AIDS epidemic. However Moore was furious, he claimed that "Mo" was "dehumanizing" and he felt like he was a "piece of meat".

Due to the cells being patented by Golde, Moore could not sell the cells, nor make any money off of them, he was not informed of his cells being used in experiments, and researchers were making money off of his body.

This is of course similar to Henrietta and the HeLa cells, as she nor her family was aware her cells were being used everywhere in science, when the Lacks family did find out, they would not recieve any compensation for the cells. (Pages 199-203)

Freezing Cells.

In the 1960's Russian and American scientists sent the Hela cells to space to experiment on the affects space has on the human body. Animals had been sent to space prior to this which led scientists to discover that space could lead to multiple cardiovascular issues within the animals and were curious to see the cellular effects on the HeLa cells, they also sent cultured cells along with them for comparison. What they discovered was that the HeLa cells started to divide faster, and the cultured cells died or became cancerous Scientists were excited that they could use this discovery as an oppurtinuty to watch as a cell initially becomes mallignant while in space. (Pages 137-138)

Soon after Henriettas death, scientists and researchers began finding methods to freeze cells. Learning how to freeze cells would be a massive help to scientists as they would no longer have to worry about feeding cells, or keeping them at optimal conditions.

Freezing cells also keeps them from reproducing/ growing. To quote the book, its essentially a "pause button". Keeping cells frozen would make it easier to transport/ ship them, as well as keep them stored between experiments without having to tend to the cells to keep them alive or monitor them. (Page 98)

Genetics

Up until 1953, doctors, researchers, and scientists believed we had 48 chromosomes in our cells that make up our genetic information. But with the introdution of HeLa cells, it was soon discovered we actually have 46. With the chromosmes in the HeLa cells being spread out they were more visible. Now knowing how many chromosomes humans have, scientists could determine disorders such as down syndrome (having an extra 21st chromosome) and klinefelter syndrome (extra sex chromosome). (Page 100)

Pharmaceuticals

Ethics

Cancer and disease treatment

Injecting patients with cancer cells

Elsie Lacks

A virologist by the name of Chester Southam considered the possiblity that the researchers working with HeLa cells could potentially be infected with her cells causing cancer. To test this theory, he injected around 600 people for his study. The subjects included: Cancer patients, terminally ill patients, and prisoners. His goal was to find out if the HeLa cells could be spread, however he didint tell the patients that he was injecting them with cancer cells. Southam said he never told them as it would cause "Unessicary fear" In the patients. (Pages 127-132)

Elsie was not born normally. She was never able to talk and was unable to communicate with the world around her. When Henriettas son Joe was born, Elsie was too much to handle, so they sent her to an insane asylum for black people. (Page 44)

Unfortunetly, when the author and henriettas youngest daughter Deborah go to the hospital where Elsie was kept, they foud photos and evidence that she was neglected and abused and treated terribly. (Page 273)

Blue line= direct connection

Purple line= Secondary conenction

Available healthcare

HeLa Cells

Social Injustice in the medical field

During the 1950's, only select few hospitals would allow patients of colour while most would restrict them from being treated. often times these hospitals would have less access to high quality equipment and thus would lead to many patients lacking the healthcare they required (page 15)

By: Gabriel Cohen-Celebre & Muid Khan

Martin Salgo

Informed Consent

The first time the term "Informed consent" was used was in 1957 when a man named Martin Salgo was put under anesthiesia for, what he was told, a "routine procedure". When he woke up, he ended up being paralyzed. Salgo was never told about any risks that the procedure had. When the doctor was taken to court, the judge sided with Salgo and said that "A physcian violates his duty to his patient and subjects himself to any liability if he withholds any facts which are necessary to form the basis of inteligent consent by the patient to the proposed treatment". (Page 132)

Discrimination

During the slave days doctors would test drugs on black slaves as well as operate on them, most times without the use of anesthesia. During the 1900s, hospitals were offering money for bodies. During this time, sevral black bodies dug from graves were brought in.

When John Hopkins died, he wrote a letter saying that people who couldnt afford treatment dont need to pay, and those who could afford it would be charged, and a portion of these earnings would go to black children. And while they did do this, in 11969 they took blood samples from 7000m children to see if there was a genetic link to criminal behavior, of course, these were taken without consent. (page 166-167)

David Lacks forced to make desicions on his late wife's behalf

Vaccination

Biology concepts

Ownership of tissues/cells

On the day that Henrietta Lacks passed away, The Hopkins Hospital caled to tell him the news. As soon as they did this however, they asked Day permission for an autopsy, to which he refused. despite the law allowing doctors to take tissue from living patients, the law forbid taking tissue from a dead patient without permission A few hours after this, he went to visit the hospital to see her body and also had to sign papers. at the hospital, the doctors once again asked about the autopsy. the doctors told him that they want to run tests that might help his children one day, and with some convincing from his cousin, David gave his permission for the autopsy. (Pages 89-90)

HPV

Polio Vaccine

In 1984 a viroligist named Harald zur Haunsen discovered HPV-18. He tested the HeLa cells and found out they containted the HPV-18 strand. With this discovery, researchers learned adds its DNA to the DNA of a host cell, and the protiens of HPV cause cancer. When they blocked the HPV DNA, cervical cancer were no longer cancerous. This newfound knowledge helped Develop the HPV vaccine! (Pages 212-213)

After Henrietta's death, plans for a HeLa cell factory came with the intent to create trillions of HeLa cells to help fight polio. an organization called the NFIP strted to create a vaccine to fight of polio but needed cells to test the vaccine on. NFIP had contacted Gey for help and found that the replicating nature of the HeLa cells were perfect to test on for the creation of this vaccine (Pages 93-95)

Telomeres

Research ownership and rights

Cervical Carcinoma

By studying the HeLa cells, Scientists discovered "telomerase" the enzyme that rebuilds the strands of protein at the end of chromosomes called "telomeres". This was the secret as to how the HeLa cells were able to constantly split and reproduce. telomerase was constantly able to rebuild the telomeres in each chromosome and allowed for the cells to split and reproduce indefinately (Page 217)

Cancer originates from a cell going wrong and are placed into categories based on what cell they start from. Majority of cervical cancers are "carcinomas" whcih mean they grow from the epithelial cells and cover the surface of the cervix to protect it. There are two types of carcinomas, invasive carcinoma and carcinoma situ. Invasive Carcinoma was a result of the cells penetrating the cervix, while carcinoma situ had not yet done so. Before HeLa cells, knowledge of this cancer was very limited, at the time, scientists believed that invasive carcinoma was deadly while carcinoma situ was not. (Pages 27-28)

One controversy that exists within the medical feild is that while doctpors need your consent to take tissue from a patient, they dont require consent to use it for whatever reserach they wish to conduct. This was how the HeLa cells were able to be used in numerous scientific discoveries while Henrietta's family was unaware of how their mother's cells were being used. (Page 317)

Selling HeLa cells

in 1950's there was a large epidemic of polio going around, in 1952 President roosevelt started a charity called the NFIP to research and develop a vaccine for polio. Cells used during the tests came from monkeys. Unfortunelty the monkey cells kept dying so little progress was made. This changed with the introduction of HeLa cells, due to their seemingly immortal nature, the NFIP asked George Gey for some. Gey soon realized that these immortal cells could make him lots of money, so he began cloning and celling these HeLa cells to anyone who asked. However, the family of Hentrietta was not made aware that this was happening until much later. (Page 94)