HeLa Cells: Are They Important?

           Cancer is a growing disease throughout the world, causing more than one million deaths per year in the United States alone.  In order to decrease the number of deaths, and possibly prevent them altogether, research needs to take place.  For many years, researchers have been using cells called “HeLa cells” to perform their research on cancer.  These HeLa cells are a very important contribution to researchers, not only for advancements in cancer, but also for advancements in other fields.  They helped create the first polio vaccination, were tested in outer space, used for understanding cancer cells, and are continued to be used in most research. 

These cells were not concocted in a laboratory; they were extracted from a woman suffering from cancer named Henrietta Lacks.  Henrietta Lacks was a poor African-American woman infected with cervical cancer at the age of thirty.  While she was receiving treatment at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, the doctors took some of her tumor cells without her knowledge.  The researchers soon found out that the tumor cells of Henrietta Lacks could be kept alive and grown.  The fact that they could grow and replicate was extremely shocking and they were deemed “immortal”.  “They can grow indefinitely, be frozen for decades, divided into different batches and shared among scientists” (Zielinski, 2010).  In fact, the now called “HeLa cells” were being sold to other researchers across the world for millions of dollars.  Since these cells were being sold all over the world, most researchers used the “immortal” cells in their studies, allowing for great advancements to occur.  Even though the selling of Henrietta Lacks’ cells for profit could be considered unethical by many, without the spread of her cells to other scientists, some of the advancements in science might not have occurred.

The first great advancement in the sciences that involved the cells of Henrietta Lacks was the creation of the polio vaccine.  “Jonas Salk used HeLa cells to grow the polio virus and he tested the vaccine on HeLa cells before its use on human in 1955” (Cantwell, 2010).  It was not until he had used HeLa cells that his vaccine began to work, therefore, if these immortal cells had never been harvested, it would have taken several more years to create a polio vaccine.  It is also possible that without HeLa cells; there would still be no polio vaccine.  Henrietta’s cells were also used in “…helping to develop medicines to fight cancer, the flu and Parkinson’s disease, and in the research that led to gene mapping and cloning.  They were used to test the effects of atomic radiation and sent into outer space” (Claiborne, 2010).  Without the existence of HeLa cells, all of these advancements would have occurred at a much later date or not at all.  The cells of Henrietta Lacks’ are definitely the most influential in the science world because they have been used to acquire enormous amounts of knowledge, allowing the world to become much more advanced.

Interview of David Axelrod on Cancer Research

           The disease of cancer has been becoming more common within the past years. With no absolute cure, “cancer” is a word that no one wants to hear come out of his or her doctor’s mouth. Scientists all over the world have been studying cancer cells to attempt at finding a cure. One scientist, David Axelrod, does that here at Rutgers University. Professor Axelrod studies the way that cancer cells interact with normal cells and tries to determine when they transform into cancer cells. He has worked with breast cancer cells in the past, but most recently he is focusing his work on colon cancer. The research that David Axelrod and other scientists perform, help us understand the mutations of normal cells into cancer cells and could possibly lead to better treatment methods.

            
         Many people enter into the field of cancer research because they want to find a cure, or because they know someone who had cancer. Surprisingly, David Axelrod did not enter the genetics/cancer field for either of those reasons. 
“There were a lot of opportunities available with microorganisms, and I found them to be interesting. It wasn’t that I thought I could help people”, David Axelrod said. The fact that he is performing this research simply because he finds it interesting and enjoyable is somewhat inspiring to the youth. Yes, it would be great to have a job that helps people, but the best career a person can hope for is one where they find their work both interesting and stimulating. A person like David Axelrod, performing research simply because he finds in interesting brings the world closer to understanding the way in which cancer cells operate.  If someone researches cancer just because they want to help people, that doesn’t mean they also find their work stimulating.  In order for results to appear, we need scientists who research because they have a passion for it.  We need researchers who find their everyday work to be both enjoyable and interesting with no alternative motive.  One such researcher is David Axelrod at Rutgers University.
 

Interview Subject: David Axelrod

      David Axelrod is a scientist and professor for the department of genetics at Rutgers University. David Axelrod focuses most of his studies on oncology, the study of cancer, and the instability of these cancer cells. Several methods are used during his research including molecular biology, cell biology, and even computer simulation. Lately, Dr. Axelrod’s main focus is on breast cancer and breast cancer cells. He studies the heterogeneity and progress of the breast cancer cells to determine how they mutate. His research helps bring a better understanding to the progression of breast cancer cells. He has published many works and one particular published work introduces the idea of the game theory and its role in understanding cancer cells. Since every cancer cell within a certain tumor is different, they all act as “players” of the game theory. Each cancer cell has different mutations and needs but within the tumor, they cooperate together. The research of David Axelrod could benefit not only people already affected with cancer, but also those not diagnosed. His research could open up many more doors to the understanding of cancer cells and could possibly lead to better ways of treatment for cancer patients.