Of the scientific discoveries made in the past century, few have been as groundbreaking as that of the HeLa cell line. The first immortal human cell line to be grown in a laboratory, HeLa cells are remarkable not only for their eternal nature, but also for their incredible robustness and the speed with which they can divide and multiply. The HeLa line revolutionized scientific research and has contributed to hundreds of medical breakthroughs over the years- the website linked here has a timeline of discoveries made with the help of this cell line. The NIH found over 110,000 publications between 1953 and 2018 that cited the use of HeLa cells.[1] The HeLa cell line is one of the most commonly used cell lines to this day- anyone who has worked in a microbiology lab would have at least heard of it. Fewer are aware of the origins of the line, and where the name comes from.
The name HeLa is shortened from Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman who was suffering from cervical cancer. She went to Johns Hopkins for treatment, but unfortunately succumbed to her remarkably aggressive cancer in 1951. However, unbeknownst to her, a part of her lived on. At the time, it was common practice for doctors to take biospecimens from patients without their say-so. Mrs. Lacks’ physician took a sample of her cancer cells and sent them to Dr. George Gey, who very quickly realized the value of what he had been given. He began to spread the line to the rest of the research community, dubbing them HeLa cells but not giving any details on where the name of the line came from. This changed in 1973, when the name Henrietta Lacks was finally made public.
This opened a new set of floodgates- now that researchers knew the name of the person from whom those invaluable cells originated, they could track down her living family to study them even further. Mrs. Lacks’ family began to receive calls from various doctors, looking to collect samples from them to better understand the genomic sequence of the HeLa cells. In the midst of this confusion was the first time her family learned of the origins of the cell line. While pharmaceutical companies raked in profits from the sale of Henrietta Lacks’ cells, her own descendants were struggling to afford healthcare, unaware that their mother and grandmother’s cells were so widely proliferated. Adding insult to injury, in 2013 the genome of the HeLa cell line was released publicly- again, with no warning to Henrietta Lacks’ family, despite the fact that it was their genetic information that was being made widely available. The genome was quickly retracted, but it sparked a great debate about bioethics and genetic privacy. This whole event was one of a handful that shaped the revitalization of privacy laws in the US, especially those surrounding the collection of biological samples.[2] However, Ms. Lacks’ story was not well known until long after her death- it was the 2010 book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” that truly brought attention to the injustice of what had happened to her.[3]
The main takeaway here is this- Henrietta Lacks did not consent to have her cells taken, nor did she consent to have them distributed so widely and studied so extensively. The fact that they changed the course of medical history in many ways is separate from the fact that it was still unjust, both to her and to her living family. Ms. Lacks' tragic tale is not the only such hidden story in science. Many of our groundbreaking discoveries can be traced back to unethical practices (the stories of Watson and Crick and Dr. J. Marion Sims are some other examples). While we can’t change the past, we can at least remember the people who were wronged in the name of scientific breakthroughs and do our part in keeping their stories alive.
In case you were curious for more details about Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot’s book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks provides a great deal of insight into hers and her children’s lives. If you enjoyed this article, I would highly recommend giving it a read!
References
3. https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Immortal_Life_of_Henrietta_Lacks.html?id=aOpAx3-czwIC Assessed and Endorsed by the MedReport Medical Review Board