I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS: HeLa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

HeLa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: A HeLa cell /ˈhiːlɑː/, also Hela or hela cell, is a cell type in an immortal cell line used in scientific research. It is the oldest and most commonly used human cell line.[1] The line was derived from cervical cancer cells taken on February 8, 1951,[2] from Henrietta Lacks, a patient who eventually died of her cancer on October 4, 1951. The cell line was found to be remarkably durable and prolific as illustrated by its contamination of many other cell lines used in research.[3][4]


The cells from Henrietta's tumor were taken by researcher George Gey, who "discovered that [Henrietta's] cells did something they'd never seen before: They could be kept alive and grow."^[5] Before this, cells cultured from other cells would only survive for a few days. Scientists spent more time trying to keep the cells alive than performing actual research on the cells, but some cells from Lacks's tumor sample behaved differently from others. George Gey was able to isolate one specific cell, multiply it, and start a cell line. Gey named the sample HeLa, after the initial letters of Henrietta Lacks' name. As the first human cells grown in a lab that were "immortal" (they do not die after a few cell divisions), they could be used for conducting many experiments. This represented an enormous boon to medical and biological research.

 

The stable growth of HeLa enabled a researcher at the University of Minnesota hospital to successfully grow polio virus, enabling the development of a vaccine.^[6] By 1954 Jonas Salk developed a vaccine for polio using these cells.^[4][7] To test Salk's new vaccine, the cells were quickly put into mass production in the first-ever cell production factory.

           

In 1955 HeLa cells were the first human cells successfully cloned.

Demand for the HeLa cells quickly grew. Since they were put into mass production, Henrietta's cells have been used by scientists around the globe for "research into cancer, AIDS, the effects of radiation and toxic substances, gene mapping, and countless other scientific pursuits".^[7] HeLa cells have been used to test human sensitivity to tape, glue, cosmetics, and many other products.^[4] Scientists have grown some 20 tons of her cells,^[4][10] and there are almost 11,000 patents involving HeLa cells.

The cells were propagated by George Otto Gey shortly before Lacks died of her cancer in 1951. This was the first human cell line to prove successful in vitro, which was a scientific achievement with profound future benefit to medical research. Gey freely donated these cells, along with the tools and processes his lab developed, to any scientist requesting them simply for the benefit of science. Neither Lacks nor her family gave Lacks's physician permission to harvest the cells, but, at that time, permission was neither required nor customarily sought.^[11] The cells were later commercialized, although never patented in their original form. Then, as now, there was no requirement to inform a patient, or their relatives, about such matters because discarded material, or material obtained during surgery, diagnosis, or therapy, was the property of the physician and/or medical institution (this currently requires ethical approval and patient consent in the UK). This issue and Lacks's situation was brought up in the Supreme Court of California case of Moore v. Regents of the University of California. The court ruled that a person's discarded tissue and cells are not their property and can be commercialized.

HeLa cells, like other cell lines, are termed "immortal" in that they can divide an unlimited number of times in a laboratory cell culture plate as long as fundamental cell survival conditions are met (i.e., being maintained and sustained in a suitable environment). 

  

There are many strains of HeLa cells as they continue to mutate in cell cultures, but all HeLa cells are descended from the same tumor cells removed from Lacks. The total number of HeLa cells that have been propagated in cell culture far exceeds the total number of cells that were in Henrietta Lacks's body.^[13]

***

   

NOW I KNOW WHY 

THE CAGED BIRD... 

~{SINGS}~

    

"Dr. Avery.  

You realize when you are not working...

you're always standing in fifth position."

~(Veterinary Technician)~

"Huh..?"

~(James E. Avery, DVM)~

    

"One, two, three, four, 
and... five.
See..! 
It's a dance move." 
~(Female Veterinary Technician)~

"It's...
 BALLET!  
What are you trying to say?!"
~(James E. Avery, DVM/Relief)~

    

"Why are you always

 SOOOO...

NEGATIVE?"

~(Female Veterinary Technician)~

"And that's a bad thing?!  

~(James E. Avery, DVM/Relief)!

 

 

"Dr. Avery!

You analyze things...

TOO MUCH!"

~(Female Veterinary Technician)~

So... 
this is what they do when not busy... 
working.

Can't help but find it amusing upon realizing, when standing in fifth position...AT...work, 
I'm always leaned up against something... 
thinking.

AN ATTEMPT AT VISUALIZING THE FOURTH DIMENSION:

1. TAKE A POINT,
2. STRETCH IT INTO A LINE,
3. CURL IT INTO A CIRCLE,
4. TWIST IT INTO A SPHERE,
5. AND PUNCH THROUGH THE SPHERE!

WHAT COME NEXT AFTER FIFTH POSITION?

AN ATTEMPT AT VISUALIZING THE FOURTH DIMENSION?

Can't help but think about L.B...

our maid.  

Just before she died from cancer, 

my mother had taken me to the hospital with her just so we could say...

good-bye one last time.

 As we walked in, 

quietly standing beside L.B's bed looking down at her as she laid completely motionless staring  up at him

(or the ceiling) 

with large glazed over eyes, 

was a young man wearing a navy blue uniform.

Upon seeing us, he steps away from L.B.'s bedside and speaking some with my mother.  And as the two talked, I couldn't help but look up in awe at how sharp and handsome this young man looked while wearing a uniform.

Then me and my mother walked over to L.B.; then, just quickly leaving having said  our good-bye.

Years later, 

I'm hearing from my mother as she telling me in a way I'm sensing as indifference, that the last thing L.B. 

did...

 for us, 

was 

ironing my sister's wedding dress after already having been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

"MOTHER!  

If you can not even vote 

for 

"OBAMA!" because "HITLERY'S!" 

wanting you to, 

then all your reasons being for Hillary are wrong to begin with!"

~(Simply Jim:  Methodist Fag the Political Catalyst)~

Had I been Ben, 

L.B.'s oldest son who was wearing this navy blue uniform, 

I've would have slapped this cold hearted bitch.

"ELITIST!"

~(My Mother)~

He was just..."WAY TOO POLITE!"..and..."KIND!"...to my mother 

that day we said our good-bye to his...

 mother. 

"MOTHER!
There is nothing any more special 
about 
Tim Tebow's mother than my mother 
other than 
his mother...GETTING...exactly what...SHE...was wanting!"

They don't care how educated a gay man is...
EITHER!

HE STILL A FAGGOT!