SOSC 1801 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1-33: Polio Vaccine, Hela, Gene Mapping
23 Feb 2017
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She was poor black tabaco farmer whose cells were taken without her knowledge in 1951. They became an important tool in medicine; vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization & more. Henrietta"s cells have been bought & sold by billions, yet her family cant afford health insurance. This books is about the ethics, race & medicine of scientific discovery. Cancer cells from tissue removed during biopsy & cultured without her permission. The hela cells reproduced greatly in a lab at john hopkins hospital- the first cell to ever do so. Hela cells travelled all over the world -the cells became viral. Hela cells have helped build thousands of careers, & 60 000 studies revealing info about aging & cancer and cellular activity. In 1966, hela cells had contaminated hundreds of cell lines destroying research. By 1973, when the lacks" children learned their mother"s cells were alive, hela had been to outer space.
