decolbioscience

[decolbioscience]

Henrietta Lacks

HeLa cells, a cell line that had helped in the advancement of medicine, were just another scientific tool that I had heard about from a friend when I was looking for a topic to research about for my final year project. However, as I researched more, I discovered their backstory was far more complicated. Some of the most significant advances in modern medicine were achieved because of these cells, which were obtained from Henrietta Lacks in 1951 without her consent.

Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman from Virginia, came to Baltimore with her husband and five children in search of better possibilities. In 1951, at the age of 31, she was diagnosed with a severe type of cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital, one of the few hospitals that treated Black patients at the time. During her treatment, doctors obtained samples of her cancerous cells without her knowledge or consent. Unlike other cells that soon died outside the body, Henrietta's cells were very special. They were deemed as "immortal" which meant they could divide continuously under the correct conditions in a lab. The first human cell line to survive and multiply outside of the human body were these cells, which received the name HeLa, which comes from the first two letters of her first and last name.

Figure 1 showing Henrietta Lacks in 1951 https://www.flickr.com/photos/oregonstateuniversity/4446362464

Totally unaware that her cells were being extracted and used for research, Henrietta was receiving painful cancer treatments at Johns Hopkins Hospital during this time. She passed away on October 4, 1951, from her sickness, unaware of the influence her cells would have on the field of medicine.

HeLa cells are crucial for research as they were the first human cells that survived and multiply in a lab setting for an extended period of time. However, although scientists and pharmaceutical corporations gained from them, Henrietta's family was unaware of its massive contribution, struggling to afford healthcare and medication whilst her cells were sold and distributed worldwide for the advancement of science.

Figure 2 showing the immortal cell line: HeLa cells https://www.flickr.com/photos/41134346@N03/8030143726

HeLa cells have had a huge impact on both science and medicine. They were vital in the development of HIV treatment, cancer research, the polio vaccine and even space medicine. These cells have been used to test medications, study genetics and get a basic understanding of diseases. Millions of HeLa cells are still being used in the latest studies, ranging from gene editing to the development of COVID-19 vaccines, in labs around the world today.  Many crucial medical advancements would not have been possible without them.

However, this story's ethical aspect is as significant as its scientific aspect. Black individuals were often received unfair treatment in medical research at the time Henrietta Lacks' cells were collected. Her family was not compensated while biotech companies made money. They were unaware that her cells were being used in research for decades after her death, until scientists contacted them in the 1970s to request blood samples to better understand HeLa cells. As word of their tragedy spread, organisations like the Henrietta Lacks Foundation were established to assist families, impacted by unethical research, with their medical and educational costs. Her family and the biotech corporation Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. only came to an agreement in 2023 that acknowledged both Henrietta's scientific contributions and their rights. You can find more information here.

This research will look into the scientific and ethical consequences of HeLa cells, specifically their use in bioscience education. My research investigates whether Henrietta Lacks' story is included in class discussions or teaching material. Are the ethical concerns concerning HeLa cells communicated to scientists and students? How can the advantages and disadvantages of earlier scientific research be made clear to future medical professionals?

To take part in the study please follow this link to the survey.

[decolbioscience]

Diversity in Science: Vote for your most inspiring Scientist

Below are nominations from NTU students this year and some popular ones nominated previously. You can vote for any of them using the link below:

Vote for your favourite Scientist who identifies as minority heritage. Poll ends 31/10/24 (office.com)

Voting closes at midnight on October 31st 2024 with the scientist receiving the most votes announced on November 3rd 2024.

[decolbioscience]

Ijeoma Florence Uchegbu

Ijeoma Uchegbu is a Nigerian-British Professor of Pharmacy at University College London where she chairs the Africa and Middle East regional network building partnerships and starting collaborative teams, welcoming international visitors and supporting student recruitment.

She is the Chief Scientific Officer of a nanotechnology company specialising in drug delivery solutions which is her area of expertise and is also works in science public engagement and equality and diversity in STEM.

Vote for Ijeoma Uchegbu Vote for your favourite Scientist who identifies as minority heritage. Poll ends 31/10/24 (office.com)

[decolbioscience]

Joy Buolamwini

Joy Buolamwini is best known for pioneering techniques at MIT to reduce harmful bias from artificial intelligence algorithms in areas of facial recognition having discovered huge disparities in their accuracy.  She has also worked in producing mobile applications to record personal health information and increase responsiveness to warning signs of health challenges from autism to infectious trachoma.

She founded the Algorithmic Justice League which combines art and research to promote public awareness of potential societal implications and harms of AI, as well as promote further research in the area.

Vote for Joy here Vote for your favourite Scientist who identifies as minority heritage. Poll ends 31/10/24 (office.com)

[decolbioscience]

Kimberly Bryant

Kimberly Bryant is an African American electrical engineer who worked in the biotechnology field at Genentech, Novartis Vaccines, Diagnostics, and Merck. In 2011, Bryant founded Black Girls Code, a training course that teaches basic programming concepts to black girls who are underrepresented in technology careers.

Vote for Kimberly here Vote for your favourite Scientist who identifies as minority heritage. Poll ends 31/10/24 (office.com)

[decolbioscience]

Mark e Dean

Mark Dean joined IBM in 1980 as an engineer while he worked to receive his master’s degree in Electrical Engineering. He holds three of the company’s nine original patents and worked on the team that developed the original home computer. He also worked to develop the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) systems bus which allowed other devices to connect to a PC.

Dean then went on to get his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford. He’s also responsible for developing the colour PC monitor and first gigahertz chip.

Vote for Mark here Vote for your favourite Scientist who identifies as minority heritage. Poll ends 31/10/24 (office.com)

[decolbioscience]

Tejinder Virdee

Tejinder Virdee is a physicist who in 1990, was one of the founding fathers of the CMS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which in 2012 shared the credit for discovering the elusive Higgs boson.

Vote for Tejinder here Vote for your favourite Scientist who identifies as minority heritage. Poll ends 31/10/24 (office.com)

[decolbioscience]

Mazlan Othman

Datuk Mazlan Binti Othman is a Malaysian astrophysicist whose work has pioneered Malaysia’s participation in space exploration. She was her country’s first astrophysicist who helped to create a curriculum in astrophysics at the national university, as well as building public awareness and understanding of astronomy and space issues.

Vote for Datuk here Vote for your favourite Scientist who identifies as minority heritage. Poll ends 31/10/24 (office.com)

[decolbioscience]

Ben Carrington

Ben Carrington is a leading scholar on the sociology of race and culture, who works with a particular emphasis on popular culture and sport.

Vote for Ben here Vote for your favourite Scientist who identifies as minority heritage. Poll ends 31/10/24 (office.com)

[decolbioscience]

Alvin Holder

Alvin Holder is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Old Dominion University, and his research involves bioinorganic chemistry.  Since the start of his career, he has supported and supervised more than 100 undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral trainees both in Barbados and the U.S.A., many of whom are from underrepresented groups.

Vote for Alvin here Vote for your favourite Scientist who identifies as minority heritage. Poll ends 31/10/24 (office.com)

[decolbioscience]

Jason Gill

As a Professor in Cardiometabolic Health, his multi-disciplinary team investigates why certain population groups appear to be particularly susceptible to the adverse effects of a ‘Westernised’ lifestyle and how lifestyle interventions can modulate this excess risk particularly concerning lipid metabolism and insulin sensitivity.

Vote for Jason here Vote for your favourite Scientist who identifies as minority heritage. Poll ends 31/10/24 (office.com)

https://www.gla.ac.uk/researchinstitutes/icams/staff/jasongill/

[decolbioscience]

Diane Ashiru-Oredope

Leads the national antimicrobial stewardship initiative for secondary care (Start Smart then Focus) and she developed and leads the Antibiotic Guardian campaign which raises awareness about the problem of AMR and the importance of antibiotic stewardship.

In 2015 she was awarded Public Health Pharmacist of the year and in 2016 Outstanding Woman in the Public Sector at the 10th PRECIOUS awards.

Vote for Diane here Vote for your favourite Scientist who identifies as minority heritage. Poll ends 31/10/24 (office.com)

[decolbioscience]

Maggie Aderin-Pocock

Maggie Aderin-Pocock is a space scientist best known for her roles in communicating science (including presenting “The Sky at Night”) and her work on satellites monitoring climate change.

When diagnosed with dyslexia as a child she was told that she should not consider a career in science, but she ended up with 4 A levels and went on to gain a BSc in Physics and a PhD in mechanical engineering.

She continues to inspire new scientists and its estimated she has spoken to over 25,000 children smashing outdated views of science careers, class, ethnicity, and gender.

Vote for Maggie here Vote for your favourite Scientist who identifies as minority heritage. Poll ends 31/10/24 (office.com)

[decolbioscience]

Nira Chamberlain

He has used mathematical modelling to investigate a range of real-world problems from modelling running costs of aircraft carriers to calculating risks associated with gas pipelines. He gained his PhD in part to provide his son with a role model in mathematics and was named in 2014 as one of the UK’s top 100 scientists.

When discussing earlier setbacks to his career, he remembered his parents’ words of encouragement “You don't need anybody's permission to be a great mathematician!” He works in outreach a great deal including his popular lecture "The black heroes of mathematics".

Vote for Nira here Vote for your favourite Scientist who identifies as minority heritage. Poll ends 31/10/24 (office.com)

[decolbioscience]

Ada Yonath

Ada Yonath is a crystallographer who developed techniques in, cryo bio-crystallography, which are now standard in investigating biological targets.

While being brought up under very poor conditions, working as a Maths tutor to support her studies, in 1970 she created the first and for a decade, the only, protein crystallography lab in Israel and she is now one of only 4 women to win the Nobel prize in Chemistry.

She won the award in 2009 for her work on the structure and function of the ribosome, which helped make clear the action of over 20 antibiotics on this target, leading to breakthroughs in understanding in antibiotic resistance. 

She was the first Israeli women to ever win this award and at the time, the first women to win in 45 years. She continues to lead research in this area.

Vote for Ada here Vote for your favourite Scientist who identifies as minority heritage. Poll ends 31/10/24 (office.com)

[decolbioscience]

Mae C Jemison

While most famous as the first African American woman in space, Mae Jemison gained a BSc in Chemical engineering, a BA in African and African American studies, and then went on to gain a medical degree as a physician during which she worked in a refugee camp.

While working as a GP she successfully competed against 2000 other candidates to join NASA, during her space mission as Science Mission Specialist in 1992 she logged over 190hrs of space flight including 127 orbits of the earth during which time she performed a number of key experiments.

Her post NASA career has involved her working tirelessly in promoting science, encouraging minority students’ interest in science, in addition to holding a number of Professorships at leading US universities.

Vote for Mae here Vote for your favourite Scientist who identifies as minority heritage. Poll ends 31/10/24 (office.com)

[decolbioscience]

Katherine Johnson

Katherine Johnson was one of the mathematicians depicted in the 2006 book and film “Hidden figures”.  For 3 decades she calculated launch windows, trajectories and other flight calculations that put the first American into space, put the first human on the moon and helped develop the space shuttle program.

Her work was held in such regard that astronaut John Glenn would not fly until the computer-based data had been checked by her and her work was instrumental in getting the astronauts of the aborted Apollo 13 mission to be able to navigate a safe return.

She also changed the practice of women not being permitted to have their names on reports they had contributed to, and broke other barriers associated with gender and ethnicity.

Vote for Katherine here Vote for your favourite Scientist who identifies as minority heritage. Poll ends 31/10/24 (office.com)