Life and afterlife of a woman who will live for ever

Her cells have been used in genetics for 50 years. Now her story is a publishing triumph

By Rob Sharp, Arts Correspondent
Wednesday, 10 November 2010



Henrietta Lacks died of cancer in 1951 and she was buried in an unmarked grave


Henrietta Lacks, the poor black tobacco worker who died in 1951 without knowing that her cells would be used to treat millions of patients through vaccines and research, could be the most important woman in modern medicine. Last night, she extended her dominance to the publishing industry.


The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the story of Lacks’ remarkable life and death written by the US science writer Rebecca Skloot, won the Wellcome Trust Book Prize, a £25,000 award celebrating medicine in literature. Skloot’s work has also been named Amazon’s Best Book of 2010, beating Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom and Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. Henrietta Lacks entered the New York Times bestseller list at number five when it was released in the US in February, and stayed there for months; it was released in Britain in June to widespread acclaim.

"It's wonderful that the prize has been awarded to a book that was such a labour of love for its author,” said Clare Matterson, director of edical hmanities and engagement at the Wellcome Trust Book Prize. “Rebecca Skloot's work absolutely meets the objective of this prize. It has something of everything - a compelling science story, an emotional personal story and intriguing ethical dilemmas - and all woven together and written with style.”

Henrietta Lacks has been described as a “biomedical thriller” and chronicles the tale of how the 31-year-old’s dead cancer cells were removed from her body without her family’s permission when she died at a Baltimore hospital from cervical cancer.

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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/life-and-afterlife-of-a-woman-who-will-live-for-ever-2129779.html

we carry within us germ cells that are immortal.

Great, great, great....,great ancestors of the first cells that populated this earth.

Ever, and forever.

Yet when they find it, it kills them.

:shurg:

PB

...in most multicellular eukaryotic cells. Her tumor cells divide indefinitely-- that's what makes them cancerous. By definition, the HeLa cell line is immortal.

on edit-- HeLa cells are used for LOTS of different purposes in medical research. They're often fused with cells having desirable properties, such as cells that produce specific antibodies, or other substances, for example, to create cell cultures that live for long times and produce lots of the desired product.

:thumbsup:

PB

K&R