Hela Cell Research

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One of the greatest scientific discoveries in medicine was that of HeLa cells. As most cells will either die immediately or reproduce only a limited number of times it is very difficult to grow human cells in a laboratory for an extended period. In 1951 the first immortalised cell was discovered by Dr. Gey of Hopkins Hospital using cells taken from a woman of colour in her early 30’s named Henrietta Lacks. The name of the cell came from the first two letters of her first and last name, hence the know widely used ‘HeLa’
As they were not the first cell line that had been tested, in the initial testing many of Gey’s colleagues and employees were wary of the results and did not take any interest until 2 days later. Unlike any other cells tested …show more content…
In order to ensure that the vaccine was safe it first had to be tested. The vaccine was originally going to be tested on the Rhesus monkey cells, but due to the highly proliferative nature of the HeLa cells and its natural capability to be easily infected by the poliovirus it became the source to test the vaccine. To make testing of the cell easier for all scientist, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP) – a foundation established by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to help families affected by Paralysis – proposed that a centre be established with the purpose of distributing HeLa cells. This centre was built at Tuskegee University where it soon became a state of the arts cell culture centre. The supervisors of the centre were Dr Russell W. Brown and Dr James H.M. Henderson . Lead by the team, the centre distributed thousands of HeLa cells each day. The team led by Brown and Henderson made important discoveries at that revolutionised the process of commercialized cell culture. Some innovations that resulted from the discovery of HeLa’s extreme temperature sensitivity Brown and Henderson equipped the laboratory with multiple incubators instead of a single large-capacity incubator so that in the case that one or more of the incubators thermostats failed and allowed the temperatures to rise to pestilent levels for some cells, they would not lose all cultures. HeLa cells …show more content…
As many scientists had accessible human cells they were no able to test different chemicals and run different experiments to see how humans would react to it and if it was deemed safe for humans. HeLa was involved in the testing of nuclear bombs by the American army and many cosmetic companies would test their products with HeLa cells. A freezing method was soon developed by researchers using HeLa cells. Freezing allowed cells to be suspended in various states of being. Scientists would pause cells at various stages of the experiment and compare how certain cells reacted to specific drugs over a period of time and then observe the changes at an identical cell at different stages to see how that cell developed and reacted to the drug. The early cell culture and cloning technology developed in the 1980’s soon led to the development
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