A Celebration Of The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

[PPI Karl]

Announcing Grossmont College's Celebration of The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks!
In fall 2011, Grossmont College will be one of many San Diego County schools and colleges engaging in its own campus-wide, interdisciplinary celebration!  From History to Nursing, from Science to English, from Culinary Arts to the Dramatic Arts, we are ramping up for a curricular and event-based, campus experience. The centerpiece of the project is Rebecca Skloot's national bestselling nonfiction book chronicling how the cells of Henrietta Lacks were used to grow human cells in the lab for the first time, leading to such discoveries as the polio vaccine. Skloot's book poignantly documents not only Henrietta's contributions to medical science, but also her family's struggle to comprehend her legacy while faced with racial, class, gender and educational divides.  The Henrietta Lacks Resource Center is a brand new website that's part of the Henrietta Lacks Project, Grossmont College's own Multi-Disciplinary Celebration of science writer Rebecca Skloot's nonfiction book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (soon to be released as a film under the aegis of Oprah Winfrey).  If you want to get in on the celebration and find out more about Henrietta Lacks, visit the GC Henrietta Lacks Resource Center @ www.grossmont.edu/english/lacks

Who is Henrietta Lacks?
Born into a poor, southern, African-American family on August 18, 1920, Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed in 1951 with terminal cervical cancer and treated at Johns Hopkins University by Dr. George Gey, who, after taking cells from her cervix without her consent, discovered they continued to thrive indefinitely.  Lacks perished from her cancer on October 4 of that same year, but in the sixty years that have since followed, not only have Henrietta Lacks's cells been patented and repeatedly cultured for use in over 60,000 published studies, they have profited medical researchers many millions of dollars, playing a crucial part in clinical research on cancer, AIDS, and gene mapping.

Although a very lucrative industry has arisen around the culturing and sale of ?HeLa? cells, it has done so without the knowledge or express permission of Lacks's family who did not discover their controversial use until twenty years after her death; they have lived in relative poverty and are unable to afford adequate healthcare--all with only rudimentary understanding of the contribution to science and humanity made by Henrietta Lacks's cells. 

Why is Grossmont College celebrating Henrietta Lacks?

• THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY for students to see the way that their learning in each subject area is part of a larger, inter-disciplinary and socially relevant conversation.
• THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY for faculty to come together with each other and students through intellectual investigation.
• THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY to collaborate and share resources with several San Diego County institutions (UCSD, USD, SDSU, Point Loma-Nazarene, CSU San Marcos, The Fleet Science Center and San Diego Center for Ethics in Science and Technology).
• THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY to read a great book!

[PPI Debra]

I hope Tracy sees this. She recently read the book.

Very interesting Karl. Thanks for posting this.

[PPI Karl]

Really!  Wow, what a coincidence!  Deffo on getting her to come to some of the events, then!  Perhaps if y'all are interested, we can make it an outing to one of them.

[PPI Debra]

It's cool with me. 

[PPI Tracy]

This is amazing that Grossmont is doing this.  I am actually still reading this book.  I'm almost finished.  I have learned more about the science of DNA, disease in general, molecular biology, cancer, cell division, rouge cells, gene mapping, and abnormal cells than in all of my science classes in high school and college.  The unfortunate thing I have learned about however is the wide abuse of authority, dishonesty, disregard for patient wishes and wishes of the family, and the notion researchers and physicians have of entitlement and power.  I've also learned how mistakes and disregard for order when it comes to handling cells in a laboratory can have devastating effects.  

I know I'm not a student there, but somehow I would like to participate in what Grossmont is doing in regards to Henrietta Lacks.  I'm thrilled this is happening and the book and event have the chance to teach those that are willing to give it even the slightest attention, some amazing things about medicine as well as the human condition.  A face, an experience, and credit can be given to this woman, finally, as rightly deserved.