Section 3 - The First Immortal Cell Line
Section 4 - The Journey of HeLa

Insight into Gey labs

The culture of HeLa

Mary Kubicek - story about red nail varnish

Roller Drum technique

Not patented - Gey was not interested in profit

First announcement of cell line

Gey on national television

Believed he had found the cure to cancer

Gey shared the cells liberally with other scientists for no financial benefit to himself - this shows that his only interests were scientific benefit and did not intend to misuse the cells

Uses of HeLa

Jonas Salk experiment

Creation of HeLa factory

Occuring at the same time as Tuskegee Syphilis Trials

This shows the disregard of some scientists for using black people in research without proper informed consent

Polio Vaccine

Gives an idea of the impact that HeLa cells have had on the lives of others

$10 fee charged per phial - no profits given to the family

Give the other uses

First cells in space

Used in first cloning techniques

Discovery of telomerase which has led to the discover of HPV, the cause of cervical cancer

Discuss how bad the outbreak was

The profit made from HeLa

Sold by several biotech companies

Invitrogen, BioWhittaker

Invitrogen - between $100 and $10,000 per phial

No profit given to the Lacks family despite the million dollar industry that has been built on HeLa

The Lacks are still unable to afford adequate healthcare or a decent education