HeLa Cells

[Bowen, Jeffery]

In spite of the CBS Sunday Morning segment on Henrietta Lacks (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/15/sunday/main6300824.shtml?tag=cbsnewsTwoColUpperPromoArea ), which would be a very good bioethics discussion topic, I’m looking for some HeLa cells.

I have a Under Grad Research student who needs the HeLa cells for a positive control.

Does anybody have the cells or some whole cell lysates they are willing to share!?!?!?

 

Best,

Jeff Bowen

 

 

Jeffery A. Bowen, PhD

Professor of Biology

Bridgewater State College

Bridgewater, MA 02325

508-531-2098

[hidden email]

 

"Let the truth of love be lighted,

Let the love of truth shine clear."

N.P.

 

 

 

 

[John Oreopoulos]

Thanks for sharing that Jeff. If you're interested in learning more about the whole story surrounding HeLa cells, I would suggest watching Adam Curtis' "The Way of All Flesh", which goes into more detail about how years later it was discovered that many "new" human cell lines were in fact HeLa cells which had contaminated other cultures and taken over. The documentary is available here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8448974573505946013&hl=en#

I agree that it would be nice if someday Henrietta Lacks could get some recognition for the importance of her cells. Unfortunately, I don't have access to any HeLa cells to share either.

Cheers.

John Oreopoulos

On 17-Mar-10, at 9:42 AM, Bowen, Jeffery wrote:

In spite of the CBS Sunday Morning segment on Henrietta Lacks (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/15/sunday/main6300824.shtml?tag=cbsnewsTwoColUpperPromoArea ), which would be a very good bioethics discussion topic, I’m looking for some HeLa cells.

I have a Under Grad Research student who needs the HeLa cells for a positive control.

Does anybody have the cells or some whole cell lysates they are willing to share!?!?!?

 

Best,

Jeff Bowen

 

 

Jeffery A. Bowen, PhD

Professor of Biology

Bridgewater State College

Bridgewater, MA 02325

508-531-2098

[hidden email]

 

"Let the truth of love be lighted,

Let the love of truth shine clear."

N.P.

 

 

 

 

[Masur, Sandra]

Read "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot

Just published and getting rave reviews

http://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks/dp/1400052173/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268841313&sr=8-1

"From a single, abbreviated life grew a seemingly immortal line of cells that made some of the most crucial innovations in modern science possible. And from that same life, and those cells, Rebecca Skloot has fashioned in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks a fascinating and moving story of medicine and family, of how life is sustained in laboratories and in memory. Henrietta Lacks was a mother of five in Baltimore, a poor African American migrant from the tobacco farms of Virginia, who died from a cruelly aggressive cancer at the age of 30 in 1951. A sample of her cancerous tissue, taken without her knowledge or consent, as was the custom then, turned out to provide one of the holy grails of mid-century biology: human cells that could survive--even thrive--in the lab. Known as HeLa cells, their stunning potency gave scientists a building block for countless breakthroughs, beginning with the cure for polio. Meanwhile, Henrietta's family continued to live in poverty and frequently poor health, and their discovery decades later of her unknowing contribution--and her cells' strange survival--left them full of pride, anger, and suspicion. For a decade, Skloot doggedly but compassionately gathered the threads of these stories, slowly gaining the trust of the family while helping them learn the truth about Henrietta, and with their aid she tells a rich and haunting story that asks the questions, Who owns our bodies? And who carries our memories? --Tom Nissley"

On Mar 17, 2010, at 10:53 AM, John Oreopoulos wrote:

Thanks for sharing that Jeff. If you're interested in learning more about the whole story surrounding HeLa cells, I would suggest watching Adam Curtis' "The Way of All Flesh", which goes into more detail about how years later it was discovered that many "new" human cell lines were in fact HeLa cells which had contaminated other cultures and taken over. The documentary is available here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8448974573505946013&hl=en#

I agree that it would be nice if someday Henrietta Lacks could get some recognition for the importance of her cells. Unfortunately, I don't have access to any HeLa cells to share either.

Cheers.

John Oreopoulos

On 17-Mar-10, at 9:42 AM, Bowen, Jeffery wrote:

In spite of the CBS Sunday Morning segment on Henrietta Lacks (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/15/sunday/main6300824.shtml?tag=cbsnewsTwoColUpperPromoArea ), which would be a very good bioethics discussion topic, I’m looking for some HeLa cells.

I have a Under Grad Research student who needs the HeLa cells for a positive control.

Does anybody have the cells or some whole cell lysates they are willing to share!?!?!?

 

Best,

Jeff Bowen

 

 

Jeffery A. Bowen, PhD

Professor of Biology

Bridgewater State College

Bridgewater, MA 02325

508-531-2098

[hidden email]

 

"Let the truth of love be lighted,

Let the love of truth shine clear."

N.P.