Henrietta Lacks Monument Zine - Yuliana Palma

Henrietta

Lacks

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Biography Born on August 1, 1920, Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman whose cancer cells were found to be immortal. She was a wife to David Lacks and a young mother to five children. She had gone to the Johns Hopkins Hospital complaining of vaginal bleeding and feeling a “knot” inside her. Dr. Howard Jones at the hospital examined Henrietta and found a large tumor on her cervix. The doctor conducted a biopsy where he retrieved some of her cancer cells without her consent, which was common back then. Dr. Jones had then sent the sample of cancer cells to another doctor’s tissue lab.

In that same lab, Dr. George Grey had been searching for an immortal cell line to use in cancer research. After looking at her cells, Dr. Grey discovered that Henrietta’s cells didn’t die, unlike other patients’ cells. In her case, the cells had doubled quickly within the span of 20-24 hours. Although Henrietta eventually died in 1951 due to her aggressive cervical cancer spreading to the rest of her body, her extracted cells survived and kept on multiplying. Unfortunately, she died not knowing that her cell line had positively impacted people all over the world.

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Contributions Henrietta’s cells are now called HeLa cells, using the first two letters of her first and last name to commemorate her importance.

HeLa cells were the first cells that could be multiplied and shared in a lab. Her immortal cell line has contributed a lot to research in the medical field.

According to Hopkins Medicine, they have been used to “study the effects of drugs, toxins, hormones, and viruses on the growth of cancer cells without having to experiment on humans.”

Additionally, Henrietta’s cells have been used to develop the polio vaccine, study salmonella, HIV/AIDS, HPV, leukemia, Tuberculosis, and even used in nanotechnology research. HeLa cells were also sent up in space missions to study how cells react in space with zero gravity. The HeLa cell line has also been used to study cloning, in vitro fertilization, and gene mapping.

Overall, Henrietta’s cells have contributed so much to the healthcare research field all around the world.

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The Monument This monument represents and honors the life of Henrietta Lacks. The monument is in the shape of a petri dish, with a visualization of HeLa cells imprinted with color onto stone. The back of the monument is enclosed with a gate, while the front has HeLa cell contributions engraved onto some more stone. In front of the monument, there is a standing plaque with Henrietta Lacks name and a brief biography on who she was and the reason her cell line is so important.

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Location #1

Peterson F amily H ealth Sciences H all I chose this location at the GMU campus because it is the building on campus that closely relates to the medical field.

This building also has laboratories for research, which is how they discovered Henrietta’s cells were immortal. The monument would either be centered on the ground or in the grass.

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Location #2

Johns H opkins Bayview M edical Center I chose this as the second location because Johns Hopkins Hospital was the place where Dr. Grey did Henrietta’s biopsy and discovered that she had the first ever immortal cell line. The monument here would be centered in the grass, with a possible walkway towards it.