She Blinded Me- With Science!
Henrietta Lacks was born as Gladys Pleasant on August 18th, 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia (this would be the modern Roanoke, not the Croatoan one which I hope to write a column on eventually). In 1924, Henrietta’s mother Eliza died giving birth to her tenth child. She was 38 years old. In 1929, Henrietta’s 48-year-old father John married a 13-year-old girl named Lillian. I can only imagine what the family dynamics in that household were, considering John’s oldest son was 20 at the time. In 1943 Henrietta moved to Maryland where she married David Lacks. They had 5 children.

On February 1st, 1951, Henrietta was admitted to John Hopkins Hospital, where she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. She died on October 4th of the same year, age 31. This would have been where her life’s story ended, had a scientist George Otto Gey not cultivated a portion of her cervix. Mrs. Lacks cancer tissue would prove to be a marvel to modern science

Dubbed “HeLa”, the cells were originally used to test cancer treatments. It was discovered that HeLa was the perfect test subject. HeLa are single cellular units. HeLa do not age, making them theoretically immortal. HeLa propagate indefinitely, provided a suitable environment is maintained. HeLa has spent the last 50 years continuously evolving, and now several different strains exist, all originally coming from the first cultured sample from Mrs. Lacks.

HeLa reproduces extremely rapidly, faster than most other cancers. The cells release the enzyme telomerase during cell division. This enzyme adds DNA sequence repeats to the telomere regions of chromosomes. What that means? Telomeres work as chromosomal buffers during cellular reproduction. Without them, genetic information is lost, resulting in cellular corrosion. In most cases of human cells, however, every time a cell divides the telomere section of that cell’s chromosomes shrink a little bit, which is a major cause for the aging process. Several premature aging syndromes are thought to be caused by stunted telomeres, including Werner Syndrome. So, because HeLa are constantly dividing and constantly generating telomerase, they never age.

These immortal, constantly duplicating cells are brilliant for use in cancer treatments, but they were instrumental for Jonas Salk and his team in the development of the first polio vaccine. That’s right, not only are HeLa immortal and useful to cancer research, but they help cure polio.

And there’s more! Ok, it’s not official, but in 1991 Leigh Van Valen, the man who first proposed one of my favorite evolutionary biology concepts (the Red Queen hypothesis, for those keeping score at home), suggested HeLa be reclassified as a new species of cell, Helacyton gartleri, which would not only make it the first classified species to evolve from humans, but also a downgrade from a complex multicellular structure to a single celled life form. No one’s really taken him up on it though, so for now it remains classified as a chimera form of human papillomavirus. In case you’re wondering, it’s thought that 80% of sexually active adults have some form or another of HPV, and it’s usually harmless. But HeLa is clearly way more awesome than a boring virus that everyone on the planet has, so I think connecting it with that should be downplayed. But that’s just my personal opinion.

Anyway! HeLa is an extremely important medical find, and we all have Henrietta Lacks to thank for it. So here’s a Tangled Web salute to you and your miracle cancer, Mrs. Lacks. You’ve helped modern oncology and biology in general. Plus you may have spawned an immortal line of single celled human descendants. HeLa rules!