In Focus
This month’s book we read for the book club was The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.
Henrietta Lacks is the woman whose HeLa cells have led to incredible advances in medicine. Her cancer cells were taken at a lab at Johns Hopkins, where lab workers learned that her cells continuously reproduced instead of dying off as most do outside of the body. When doctors and scientists learned of these incredible cells, the lab freely shared them around the world.
One of the first advancements was the creation of the Polio Vaccine using HeLa cells. These cells helped researchers learn that humans have 46 chromosomes and they created the genome map. These cells were the first in space to test the effects of gravity on astronauts, and are used in so many vaccines and treatments today, from cancer and HIV to COVID-19.
While the advancements made using HeLa were well-known, little was known about the person.
The story follows Skloot as she uncovers who Henrietta Lacks was, other than a poor black woman from the South. Henrietta died of cancer in 1951 at the age of 31. After the death of her mother, she was raised by her grandparents alongside several cousins, one of which she married. She worked the tobacco fields and at the same time dealt with segregation and finding a hospital that would treat people of color. Informed consent was not standard medical practice at the time and doctors often used patients in their research without the patients even knowing, or being aware of side effects of different treatment, because “times were different” then.
Skloot masterfully tells the story and about the struggle to get Henrietta’s family to trust her to tell the story. She makes it easy to follow the science while keeping the family’s dialect and mannerisms intact to paint a better picture while learning about the family. It’s a fascinating story and eye-opening to how modern medicine was shaped through HeLa and privacy laws.
This is one of those books every high-schooler should read as it relates to more than just a good story, covering history and biology.
Curiosity got the best of me, and I looked to see if HeLa was involved in the creation of treatments for my Crohn’s disease. Of course, it was. Thanks to Henrietta Lacks, I am grateful for the treatments we have now and continue to create.
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