rebecca skloot

Earlier this month the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) published the DNA sequence of the genome of HeLa cells, the cell line that is widely used for research in virology, cell biology, and many other areas. This cell line was produced from a tumor taken from Henrietta Lacks in 1951. Unfortunately the EMBL did not receive permission from Ms. Lacks’ family to publish her genome sequence, and have withdrawn the information from public databases.

The history of HeLa cells has been well chronicled in Johns Hopkins Magazine and by Rebecca Skloot inÂ The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.Â In early 1951, Ms. Lacks was found to have a malignant tumor of the cervix. During her examination at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD, a sample of the tumor was removed and used to produce the HeLa cell line.Â But Ms. Lacksâ€™ family never learned about the important cells that were derived from her until 24 years after her death.

It is quite clear that permission to publish the HeLa cell genome sequence should have been obtained from the Lacks family. This issue are discussed in an opinion piece by Rebecca Skloot in the New York Times.

I was honored to work with Rebecca Skloot during the preparation of Immortal Life, and I am flattered that Ms. Skloot thanked me in the afterward of the book. I have also written about my work with HeLa cellsÂ (that’s me in the photo with a spinner of the cells). You might also be interested in my conversation with Philip Marcus, who was the first to produce single cell clones of HeLa cells.

Shortly after I wrote about my years of experience with HeLa cells, I was contacted by author Rebecca Skloot. One of her many questions was how I knew that I had produced 800 billion HeLa cells in my laboratory over 26 years. I learned that she was writing a book about Henrietta Lacks, whose tumor was the source of HeLa cells in 1951. Subsequently I had the privilege of reading an early draft of her book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which will be published next month.

I thought I knew enough about HeLa cells and their origins, but Rebecca’s book shattered that impression. I’ve worked with the cells all my career and have always appreciated them, and the fact that Henrietta gave science something fabulous, but the back story I didn’t appreciate. How the whole affair deeply affected that family, and what they went through. I want to thank Rebecca for working so hard to get the whole story. And for being nice enough that the family trusted her! She not only vividly portrays what the family went through, but shows what HeLa has meant to science, how unscrupulous people always want to take advantage of others, and the good and bad about science. In the end, I keep coming back to the same question: if we had informed consent laws back then, would Henrietta have said no? If so, it would have been a tremendous loss for science and medicine. Or should I say setback – because eventually there would have been others. That’s how science is: someone always makes the discovery, sooner or later.

There will be a public launch of the book on 1 February at 7pm at McNally Jackson Bookstore in New York City. Rebecca will read a bit from the book, talk about it, sign it, and answer questions. Below are the details of the public event. If you are in the New York area, and have an interest in science, I encourage you to attend. I will certainly be there!

Public Launch Event: Rebecca Skloot Discusses Her New Book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”

Award winning science writer Rebecca Skloot discusses and signs her new book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Books available for sale at this launch event one day before the book’s official publication date. Free & open to the public.

Book description: Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells — taken without her knowledge — became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first immortal human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons — more than 100 Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, & the effects of the atom bomb; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the colored ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henriettas small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia — a land of wooden slave quarters, faith healings, and voodoo — to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live, and struggle with the legacy of her cells. Henriettas family did not learn of her immortality until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. The story of the Lacks family — past and present — is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of. More information atÂ rebeccaskloot.com.

“Skloot’s book is wonderful, deeply felt, gracefully written, sharply reported.” — Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief

“This is an extraordinary book, haunting and beautifully told.” — ERIC SCHLOSSER, author of Fast Food Nation

When: Monday, February 1 2010, 07:00 PM
Where: McNally Jackson Books, 52 Prince Street, New York, NY