Henrietta Lacks died almost 60 years ago, but you can still buy parts of her on the Internet.
“You can go to a biochemical lab online and buy a vial of my grandmother’s cells,” said Kimberley Lacks.
Those undying cells, harvested 60 years ago without Lacks' awareness or permission, triggered a revolution in medical science. Using so-called HeLa cells, scientists developed a polio vaccine, pursued HIV research, mapped genes, created in vitro fertilization and pursued a host of other advances.
With the publication this spring of the best-seller “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” by Rebecca Skloot, the world is beginning to understand Lacks’ monumental impact on modern health.
But long before the book, and the Oprah-produced HBO movie that is also planned, Henrietta Lacks had a champion in Atlanta: Dr. Roland Patillo, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Morehouse School of Medicine.
In the 1960s, Patillo worked and published papers with George Gey at Johns Hopkins, one of the few African-American doctors to do so. Gey was the brilliant researcher who grew the HeLa cells taken during a biopsy when Lacks was being treated for cervical cancer at the same hospital.
For years researchers had been trying to grow human cells outside the body. Until HeLa, all of them died. For reasons unknown, the HeLa cells thrived.
When Patillo came to Morehouse in 1995, one of the first things he did was help organize a women's health conference in honor of Lacks, and to invite members of the family down to Atlanta to speak.
"He got the city of Atlanta to make the day Henrietta Lacks Day," said Dr. Roland Matthews, chair of the ob/gyn department at Morehouse. "He has found a way, through various means -- sometimes not easy ones -- to sponsor this annual conference."
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The 15th annual HeLa conference will be held Friday at Morehouse, but this time with international attention triggered by the best-seller. Kimberley Lacks, her father David Lacks and 16 other members of the Lacks family will appear at Morehouse to speak.
“This is a wonderful thing that Morehouse is doing,” said David Lacks, 63, of Baltimore. “Everybody wants to be a part of it.”
Their enthusiasm is a departure from the suspicion that greeted author Rebecca Skloot when, on Patillo's recommendation, she first contacted the family about writing Henrietta’s story. They had good reason to be suspicious. They had been tricked by a con artist, their mother’s medical records had been published without their knowledge or approval, and though HeLa cells made millions for biomedical companies, many members of her family couldn’t afford health insurance.
David "Sonny" Lacks, a truck driver, underwent quintuple bypass heart surgery in 2003, and awoke from anesthesia to find himself $100,000 in debt. “I made arrangements to pay so much when I can,” he said.
But Skloot slowly won the family over, and through a 10-year relationship produced a detailed portrait of the woman who had previously been known as initials on a test tube.
"She actually gave the world an opportunity to know my grandmother Henrietta Lacks, and not just the scientifical part of it," said Kimberley Lacks. "[The book] put a person with those cells."
That person grew up poor, on a tobacco farm in tiny Clover, Va., on land that her ancestors had worked as slaves. As a teenager Henrietta married her cousin, David Lacks and they moved to Turner Station, near Baltimore, where he worked at the Bethlehem Steel plant.
The youngest of her five children was still in diapers when she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. That cancer would kill her at age 31, but would also yield cells that refused to die. While Lacks lay in an unmarked grave, her cells were reproduced an unimaginable number of times -- enough to generate 50 million metric tons of cells, according to one estimate.
That those cells were taken without her permission was a commonplace in 1951, but the landscape of medical ethics has changed.
"This is a hallmark issue, and cries out for the attention of bioethicists," Patillo said. "The big institutions have not yet addressed it or come forward, but the Henrietta Lacks Foundation is a start."
Headed by Skloot and Patillo, the foundation uses some profits from her book, as well as donations, to help pay for scholarships for family members and address critical needs. "We have awarded five scholarships to five family members," he said.
Patillo has seen to other needs of the family. He and his wife paid for a headstone for Henrietta's grave.
The epitaph, written by her family, reads, "In loving memory of a phenomenal woman, wife and mother who touched the lives of many. Here lies Henrietta Lacks (HeLa). Her immortal cells will continue to help mankind forever."
The annual HeLa Women’s Health Conference
Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., at Morehouse School of Medicine’s Louis W. Sullivan National Center for Primary Care Auditorium, 720 Westview Drive S.W., Atlanta, GA 30310-1495. Free. For information: 404-802-8200. www.msm.edu/hela.aspx
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