Henrietta Lacks
Watch the first ten minutes of the documentary “Way of All Flesh” about Henrietta Lacks:
1. How old are Henrietta Lacks’ cells now, as of 2018?
2. What race(s) were Henrietta’s great grandmother and great grandfather?
3. What did Dr. Gey feed cancer cells to try and keep them alive?
4. What color was Henrietta’s tumor?
5. What happened when Mary Kubicek plated out Henrietta’s tumor cells that was unusual?
6. Why did Dr. Gey give HeLa cells a code name?
Go to the Wikipedia page about Henrietta Lacks:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Lacks
7. Why did Henrietta Lacks have no choice but to go to Johns Hopkins hospital?
8. Henrietta Lack’s grave was unmarked for years, but in 2010, who provided a headstone for her and what inspired him to do so?
9. Finish this line from her headstone: Her immortal cells…
Read this interview with Rebecca Skloot, the author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (an excellent book I strongly recommend you read!):
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Henrietta-Lacks-Immortal-Cells.html
10. Henrietta’s husband got a call that he interpreted as “We’ve got your wife. She’s alive in a laboratory. We’ve been doing research on her for the last 25 years. And now we have to test your kids to see if they have cancer.” What was the real purpose of the call?
11. Henrietta’s family lived in poverty and many couldn’t afford health insurance. What did her brothers do when they found out HeLa cells were being bought and sold?
Read the front page of this website: http://henriettalacksfoundation.org/
12. What is the purpose of the foundation, and what have they accomplished so far?
Watch the first minute of this bioethicist interview about Henrietta Lacks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x21YtrY9f0Y
13. Was it illegal for doctors to take cells from Henrietta without her consent? Was it right to take them?
Read this blog post: http://scienceblogs.com/whitecoatunderground/2010/01/18/consent/
14. What is the main difference between the consent form signed by Henrietta Lacks in 1951 compared to one she would sign today?
Listen to the song “Helen Lane” by Mal Webb.
15. At what minute in the song does the singer use “Helen Lane’s” real name?
16. Why is the song called “Helen Lane”?
Check out this infographic at http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/01/st_henrietta/
17. Approximately how many scientific papers do HeLa cells appear in?
18. In what year did a Yale researcher publish a discovery that cancerous HeLa cells contain an enzyme that prevents cells from dying, i.e. makes them immortal (hint: you KNOW the name of this enzyme!)?
19. Do cancer cells grow faster or slower in space?
20. How did HeLa cells make it possible to diagnose trisomies like Down syndrome?
Summary Haiku: From what you’ve learned from this webquest, write a haiku (3 lines: 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables) that summarizes some aspect of Henrietta Lacks’ life and legacy.