Cell biologist and cancer researcher Dr. David Spector brings his knowledge, experience and perspective about HeLa cells – the star of Rebecca Skloot’s best-selling book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” – to a free public lecture and discussion at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

Join us to get a glimpse of the tremendous impact this cell line has made on medical research and the discoveries that it contributed to both at CSHL and at institutions around the world. Dr. Spector will also discuss the issues of bioethics and informed consent raised by the book, and how they affect current research.

source

By admin

30 thoughts on “Henrietta Lacks and HeLa Cells: Impact on Biological Research and Informed Consent”
  1. Donors should be able to specify that their tissue samples must be entered into the public domain. There should be something like the GPL for tissue samples. It seems as though the courts were influenced by big pharmacy and big university.

  2. The rewriting of history, an admittance that HeLa cells were used to culture Polio, the lie that these cells were a benefit as 90% of the worlds population is now infected with HeLa and it is causing untold number of disease as Henrietta Lacks not only had cancer but HPV and syphillis as well.

  3. They stole her body when she died, cell , tissue an what have you. She was a women of Hue (color). Her family didn't even know until after the fact. To tip it off she was a sick women. This is what big pharm puts in peoples bodies

  4. Informative video. Done more as damage control and PR from the den of eugenics. Reading between the lines and understanding how things really work, this video is well worth a watch. I noticed among other things, that the ethics issues of the Nazis was brought to light, as a step in establishing guidelines ,but no mention that the very founders of their laboratory, their philosophy and direction of their research,is just a continuance of that same Nazi agenda.   Interesting… 

  5. What else they used these cells for? Did they grow the polio vaccines on theses cells? How many people developed cancer from these cells???

  6. I don't necessarily think that all those experiments that were done unknowingly was a "humane" thing… but at the same time, if you think about it, we wouldn't be where we are now in clinical research. However, (having just finished the book yesterday in my class) there is a scene in the book when Henrietta is dying, and the doctor finally tells her that they have her cells and that it would help save many more lives. She smiled at this and said she was happy that all the pain would come to some good. So, in conclusion, these experiments were needed in order to make all these discoveries. Again, I'm not saying what they did was right. So don't hate, please.

  7. If i understand this right, HeLa cells have been the de-facto cell substrate for quite a long while. So any bio-research, pharma, or genetic product has been developed in a soup of HeLa DNA.  
    The worrisome part is that Henrietta had cancer and HPV (HPV has increasingly been linked with cancer).
    Wikipedia's HPV article says: "The mutant HeLa cell line contains extra DNA in its genome that originated from HPV type 18.[168]" 
    Cancer rates started accelerating in the 30's and we went from incidences of 1 in 40 then to near 1 in 3. 
    What are the chances that developing a drug on top of a cell substrate wt cancer, carries some basic elements into the organism taking the drug, and causes it in the new body.
    I guess i ought to ask what are the chances that this would be a concern that would attract research funding, or what is the cancer that any organization  would actually come clean if they  found out that it was the case?

  8. Professor David Spector goofed by saying "the ONLY cell in the body without a nucleus is the mature red blood cells". This was a serious blunder even to a first year medical student. As a reminder, PLATELETS(or THROMBOCYTES), important cells in blood clots formation, also DO NOT have a nucleus!

  9. Am I the only one who caught how dude played down how much money the greedy white folks made and make currently, 2016, from her cells? He said the family," THOUGHT." They thought the doctors and others made lots of money. Give me a bloody break. White folks are billionaire off of this woman. ALWAYS STEALING. Never paying people.

  10. 04:22
    – normal human cells have 46 chromosomes, HeLa cell have ~82 chromosomes

    – normal cells divide 50 times, HeLa cell has been dividing for ~70 years

    – there are over 2,000 human cell lines

  11. 06:58
    scientific landscape (1951)

    cannot grow cell outside of body

    haven't found double-helix (1953)

    cancer causing oncogenes are not discovered (1970)

    no gene sequence(1972)

    no cloning (1978)

    no cloned oncogenes (1982)

  12. 10:02
    Henretta Lacks was 30 years old, treated at JHU hospital who treats Black American

    Cervical cancer was identified by Dr. Howard Jones

    George Gey was a cancer researcher @ JHU who has been collecting cells, hoping to identify a cancer cell line. He shares the cells freely with researchers. Advance cancer in mind.

  13. 19:37
    Cells undergo fundamental processes of life, so there are many discoveries.

    1) propogate polio virus and develop vaccines against polio

    2) cells in zero gracity

    3) radiation on human cells

    4) map genes

    5) prove human papolloma virus causes cancer

    6) identify mechanism of tuberculosis and HIV infection

    7) discover human cells contain telomerase

    8) Dr. Chester Southam @ Sloan-Kettering Institute (1953, 1954). Continue studies and recruit physicians. Study tumor and inject HeLa cells in lukemia patients and normal people – prisoners. Realize that there need to be guidelines – the starting point for ethical use of human subjects at NIH.

    22:59

    Cold Spring:

    1) isolated native form of RNA polymerase (1970)

    2) identify keratins, which are later used in cancer diagnosis (1979)

    3) critical proteins in controlling cell cycle (1980s)

    4) identify onco-protein that is in charge of editing RNA molecules (1990)

    5) numerous localization to identify protein location and function (1970s -)

  14. 34:51
    Used because they can grow under bad conditions, and in large amounts that is helpful for purifying proteins and other molecules that only exist for a small amount in cells.

  15. 35:31
    Informed consent and Patient's rights

    No law was broken. That was the way to do things.

    Up until 1971 at Dr. Gey's retirement honoring ceremony, no one know who Henrietta Lacks was. In some cases, HeLa is referred to as Hele Lane to keep her anonymous.

    The family found out on a Rolling Stone magazine article. Cells from my mom, people making money, we can't afford health care, and we (by Rebecca, her daughter) would donate if we have known about it.

  16. 39:07
    Started with concentration camps.

    *1947 – Nuremberg Code. International document stating that voluntary consent is mandatory for any clinical research.

    1945-1966 the NIH found 2000 non-informed consent research projects

    1964 – Declaration of Helsinki – a set of ethical principles regarding human experiment developed by World Medical Association. Not legally binding; undergone 6 revisions. Nobody overseeing.

    1966 – initiation of independent institutional review boards

    1979 – National Commision for the protection of human subjects (Belmont Report). Prompted in part by the Tuskegee Syphilis Study (1932-1972). A set of Guidelines were developed for ethical research and a mandatory IRB process was initiated.

  17. 44:45
    Who owns the material?

    In 1999, the RAND Corporation published a report indicating that more than 307million tissue samples from more than 178 million people were stored in the USA. this number is increasing exponentially.

    The Common Rule, part of the Declaration of Helsinki (1981 update), sets forth the composition and function of institutional review boards (IRBs), but does not address the question of who owns human tissue used in research and it does not apply to tissue obtained postmortem.

    There are no clearly defined regulations regarding the ownership of human tissue samples and their fate.

    The ownership does not depend on whether a patient consented or not.

    No laws or regulations exist regarding ownership of leftover tissue, fluids, or tissue blocks. However, IRB approval is required for their use.

    In the case of tissue being excised for clinical purposes or donated for research, courts have determined that patients do not retain ownership rights of excised tissues.

  18. 50:11 1/3 lawsuit
    California – patented cell line Moore vs. the Regents of the University of California

    without knowledge.

    any ownership you have in your tissue vanished when they are removed from your body, with or without consent.

    1990

  19. 50:24 2/3 lawsuit
    Greenberg vs. Miami Children's Research Institute

    Build up the data bank with children's sample, physician found enzyme and gene for Canavan disease and a pre-natal test for test was patented.

    The family funded and played a huge role, not informed and the patent was sold to a biotech company.

    Not getting any royalty.

    Decision – got monetary settlement because of their significant contribution and time and resources.

    2003

  20. 53:11 3/3 lawsuit
    William Catalona vs. Washington University

    prostate cancer patients' tissue, collected by a researcher who want to move to Northwestern, were asked to be retain in WashU.

    He got the letters from all the patients that they allow him to use the tissue samples and transfer.

    Decision – the university, not the physician or the patient, owned the tissue.

    Used to help society.

  21. If you ask me, they should be paying through their noses to the Lacks family. Because of Mrs. Lacks cells, the world is a better place medically. Funny, that a black person is responsible for all of these medical breakthroughs that helps all races and still they hate black people.

Comments are closed.