Immortal Cells Immortal Cell lines can grow indefinitely, be stored for years, and can be divided up and shared among other scientists. The first of these immortal cells were HeLa cells, cells originally taken from Henrietta Lacks, a woman who had cervical cancer, at John Hopkins hospital in Generally, immortal cells are cancer cells.

What have immortal cells done for medicine? Immortal cells have been vital to research that helped create the polio vaccine, “a contagious viral illness that in it’s most severe form causes paralysis, difficulty breathing and sometimes death.” It’s also aided with the development of treatments for other various diseases such as, Parkinson’s disease, influenza, leukemia, and hemophilia

What have immortal cells done for general science? Immortal Cells haven’t only been useful in medicine, they’ve been used in various scientific practices as well. HeLa cells specifically aided with gene mapping, research and development on cloning, and in vitro fertilization.

Are immortal cells still used today? In the prologue of Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot says, “There’s no way of knowing exactly how many of Henrietta’s cells are alive today. One scientist estimates that if you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weight more than 50 million metric tons– an inconceivable number, given that an individual cell weighs almost nothing.” Another scientist calculated that if you could lay all HeLa cells ever grown end-to-end, they’d wrap around the earth at least three times, spanning more than 350million feet.” Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks page 19.

Key Words: HeLa Cells Henrietta Lacks John Hopkins Hospital Cancer Cells George Gey Polio Culture Gene Mapping Biology Maryland

 Was it immoral of George Gey to take the cells without permission, even though he knew they would be very useful for research?  Why is it that there is so much talk about HeLa cells, but Henrietta Lacks was never credited until recently?  Were Henrietta Lacks and her family compensated for her cells, what would be a possible payment, or reward? Is just acknowledgement good enough, or did she deserve money?