Living Environment
Name:
Directions: In the word find above, find the names of the following people and places that played a significant role in
the HeLa cell story. Based on the video, Something You Didn’t Learn in School: The True Story of Henrietta Lacks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWR4kpwsHws
People
HeLa Cells – laboratory name given to Henrietta Lacks’ “cell line.” A cell line is cells that have been kept alive and used
for experimentation for a long time.
Henrietta Lacks – woman’s whose cells have made the most important medical discoveries of the 20th century possible
and are still used today in research.
“Day” Lacks—Henrietta’s husband and cousin
Deborah “Dale” Lacks—Henrietta and Day’s fourth child
Elsie Lacks (born Lucille Elsie Pleasant)— Henrietta’s second born and eldest daughter. She was institutionalized due to
epilepsy and died at age fifteen. She was subjected to experimentation.
George Gey— doctor, head of tissue-culture research at Johns Hopkins. He developed the techniques used to grow HeLa
cells from Henrietta’s cancer tissue in his lab.
Mary Kubicek—George Gey’s lab assistant who cultured HeLa cells for the first time.
Stanley Gartler— the geneticist who dropped the “HeLa bomb” when he proposed that many of the most commonly
used cell cultures had been contaminated by HeLa.
Victor McKusick— geneticist at Johns Hopkins who conducted research on samples taken from Henrietta’s children
without informed consent to learn more about HeLa cells.
Helen Lane – fake name released by researchers to hide the use of Henrietta’s cells.
Jonas Salk – discovered the vaccine for polio/paralyzing disease; this is just one of the world changing discoveries made
using Henrietta’s cells.
Places
Baltimore, MD – city where Henrietta and her family moved to find a better life; location of Johns Hopkins University
and hospital where Henrietta was treated for cancer.
Roanoke, VA – where Henrietta was born.
NOT IN THE PUZZLE: Johns Hopkins University – famous university and hospital where Henrietta was treated and where
her cells were taken and made available for research.
Short Answer Response
1. Directions: Unscramble the words below using the definitions and italicized words in the above descriptions
as clues.
elcl lutcreu - _______________
________________________
Basic units of structure and function of living things grown in labs for the purpose of
research and health tests.
ttnegiiecs - __________________________
A scientist that studies genetics.
Elcl ilne - _________________
_________________
Basic units of structure and function of living things kept alive and used for
experimentation for a long time.
Directions: Answer questions 2 and 3 in full sentences. You can refer back to resources given during our previous
Science Starter lessons.
2. Why do you think the video is part of a series called the Backside of American History?
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3. The 3 basic principles of the Common Law are…
1) Informed Consent
2) Beneficence/Do only good
3) Justice
Discuss how these principles were and were not violated in as they apply to Henrietta’s case and how she and
her family were treated by the medical research community?
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