Monthly Archives: April 2017

Oprah Winfrey discusses the challenges of playing Deborah Lacks, a woman intent on learning about the mother she never knew, in true-life HBO film, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks". ( The Associated Press )

Some 66 years after her death, Henrietta Lacks lives on daily and quite literally atop laboratory benches at Torontos Mount Sinai Hospital.

Indeed, cells taken from the cervical cancer that killed her in 1951 are still being cultured and used by the tonnes in labs around the globe, says biochemist Jim Woodgett, director of the hospitals Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute.

Oh, we use them all the time, Woodgett says of the thriving cells dubbed HeLa after the two first initials of their original owners given and last names.

HeLa cells, which have unique properties, have become a basic and ubiquitous tool of biomedical research. Theyve also inspired a best-selling book, a long-running ethics debate, and are taking a star turn this weekend in an Oprah Winfrey movie debuting on HBO.

Without the knowledge of Lacks, a poor, African-American tobacco farmer from Virginia, cells harvested from that long-ago tumour biopsy began to be grown for human tissue research at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she was being treated in the Baltimore facilitys coloured ward.

And they just kept growing.

Unlike any seen before, Lackss cells would divide outside the body with abandon overspilling Petri dishes and test tubes that all previous human counterparts were hard-pressed to fill.

In medical terms, they proved immortal, says Woodgett, whose lab has used them to study cell division and protein function.

Lackss cells were famously used in the development of Dr. Jonah Salks polio vaccine in the early 1950s and in the creation of countless drugs and research advances worth untold billions of dollars since.

But they also entered a vortex of mounting ethics controversies and compensation claims that are explored as part of the Winfrey production, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

The movie is based on a 2010 book of the same name by author Rebecca Skloot. It also tells the story of Lackss life and the effect her cellular immortality had on her family and on medical research worldwide.

Her own life was short but spirited in the face of poverty, Skloot says in a phone interview.

She grew up in the very rural South during the era of segregation, Skloot says. She was descended from slaves who had worked this tobacco plantation that eventually she came to own a piece of.

Lacks had lived in one of the plantations former slave shacks, and she had borne five children before falling ill at age 30.

But she loved it down there; every story about her in the (nearby) town of Clover was about how much she loved it.

She was also loved by her family, friends and neighbours touched by her generosity.

She was sort of like this uber-mother, Skloot says. She just took care of everyone: her kids, her cousins kids, the neighbours kids. If you didnt have a girlfriend, shed find you one; if you didnt have a place to stay, you slept on a mattress in her hallway.

Her giving would extend far beyond the grave.

Lacks was first seen in 1951 by Johns Hopkins doctors, who would take two biopsies for diagnosis and research. About eight months later, she died. Even before her death, the cells had already spread to labs around the world.

But their human provenance had been largely forgotten.

In one of the books many memorable passages, a lab assistant at Lackss autopsy took in her painted toenails and was jarred by the sight, Skloot wrote.

Oh jeez, he thought, Shes a real person.

It dawned on him only then that the cells that had rocketed to scientific stardom had come from a live woman, one who bent down in a bathroom and carefully painted her nails red.

This type of human recognition by scientists acknowledging the people who produced the clusters of cells they detachedly employ was greatly bolstered for many researchers by Skloots book, says Woodgett, who also teaches a course on research ethics at the University of Toronto.

I think the movie will do the same, Woodgett says. I think the scientific community should embrace this as yet another learning lesson.

And the more that lesson is taken up, the greater the satisfaction for Skloot, who began to study the Lacks story as a graduate student in 1999.

That was one of the biggest motivations behind telling (it) in some ways, she says. Putting a human face to this incredibly important advance that every single person has benefited from.

Like most cervical cancers, Lackss was caused by the human papillomavirus, or HPV.

HPV can spark tumour growth by invading cells on the surface of the cervix, latching onto segments of their DNA and creating cancer-causing mutations.

The genome, Skloot explains, has three billion places where the virus can potentially land.

And by chance, the place where the HPV virus landed happened to turn on the most aggressive tumour gene that it could have, she says. So it really was like a one-in-three-billion chance that it could have landed right there and switched her cancer on in a way that was so incredibly aggressive for her and for science in a way that turned out to be very good.

HeLa cells have proven an undeniable boon to medicine for more than six decades, Skloot says.

Among other things, they have been used to grow viruses for vaccine development, study cancer, AIDS and cell division and to test the effects of radiation and poisons on human tissues. Theyve even been to space, where they were used to test the effects of microgravity on human tissues.

Also among their assets, Woodgett says, is the uniform platform they provide for researchers in every corner of the globe.

The worldwide use of the cells, he says, helps ensure that experiments conducted in Tokyo or Paris can be reliably reproduced and verified in Toronto or Boston.

Pretty much every university, every hospital research lab has these cells, he says.

Cells, including the HeLa versions, are grown in labs using mediums rich in glucose and other nutrients that prompt them to divide.

But normally cells will divide only a certain number of times, even under the best conditions, and then theyll stop, Woodgett says.

Normal cell lines will grow, in a Petri dish for example, until they are all touching and then theyll stop, he says, a process known as contact inhibited. Further growth relies on splitting these up and placing the separated cells into other vessels. But even then, cells will stop growing after two or three of these separations or passages, Woodgett says.

Immortalized cells will just divide and divide and divide and they dont tend to be contact inhibited, he says. Theyll pile up on top of each other and they also grow indefinitely.

For the Lacks family, which now includes great-grandchildren, theres an ongoing pride in the lifesaving advances the cells have supported and in their reminder for scientists like Woodgett of the humanity beneath their microscopes.

They talk about that a lot, how they feel its so important for scientists to really learn the story of Henrietta and her family and the impact all of this had on them, Skloot says. They hope that in the future other people dont have to have the same experiences.

For Henriettas husband, David, and their children, those experiences began in 1973, 22 years after her death, when researchers came knocking to enrol them in studies. Having had no notion that their wife and mother was living on in medical fame and cellular reality, this scientific onslaught was traumatic.

Her daughter Deborah Lacks the Winfrey character and the soul of Skloots book was especially disturbed by the researchers arrival, thinking theyd come to tell her that she too might be dying of cancer.

She knew her mother died around the age of 30 and Deborah always lived in fear of her own 30th birthday (which was then approaching), Skloot says. So this just seemed like her worst fears coming true.

Eventually, Deborah, who died of a heart attack in 2009, came to see the cells in a spiritual fashion, as the selfless presence in the world of a mother shed barely known.

She really believed that her mother was chosen as an angel, brought back to life to take care of these people, says Skloot, who became close with the daughter over the decade she worked on the book.

She felt that Henrietta in life was such a caretaker and such a mother to so many people and that in death shes essentially doing the same thing curing diseases and really taking care of people.

Other members of the family, however, felt hurt and resentful at the absence of their consent to use the cells and over the huge amounts of money theyd generated.

Learning from journalists in the 1970s that the cells were being bought, sold and employed in medical breakthroughs, Henriettas sons became enraged, says Skloot, who is played in the movie by Australian actress Rose Byrne.

They found that out and they were like, Oh, wait a minute, if her cells are so important to medicine, why cant we (afford to) go to the doctor? And if people are buying and selling them wheres our cut?

Courts and legislators internationally have weighed in on the money issue, deciding that payments will not be owed for tissues or genetic information used in research or biotech advances.

Most of the Lacks family has come to accept this, Skloot says. Many family members have made extensive speaking appearances extolling Lackss legacy, and fostering pride in her contributions.

But the current generation met a new outrage in 2013 when a group of German scientists sequenced the HeLa cells genome and posted the results online.

It was the German work that finally revealed the genetic secrets of the cells immortality raising the possibility they could be used to immortalize other cell lines.

But it also exposed genetic information about any of Lackss living descendants who would share large segments of her genome but, yet again, were not informed about and gave no consent for the sequencing or its publication.

Legally, researchers didnt have to seek consent, Skloot says. For the scientific community, however, the sequencing and posting caused an uproar.

They were like what? Skloot says. Of course we were all curious about the genome, but are you kidding? You did this without talking to her family? Have you read the book?

After consulting the family, Skloot persuaded the researchers to remove the information. And now two of Lackss descendants sit on a U.S. National Institutes of Health board that decides who can use her genetic information and for what purposes.

Nothing like this ever happened where either research participants or tissue donors are part of the process, Skloot says. The family wanted this genome to help the world, but also basically wanted this whole (lack of consent) process to stop with this generation.

Still, other legal and ethical issues raised by Lackss case remain sticking points.

Key among these, says clinical ethicist Michael Szego, is informed consent: the right of a patient to explicitly approve involvement in medical trials or the laboratory use of tissues or other clinical information with a clear understanding of the research involved.

The notion of consent, however, was largely absent at the time of Lackss treatments, Skloot says.

They went in and they took these samples and it was totally standard at the time, she says. They were taking samples from really anybody they could get their hands on.

We didnt even have the term informed consent.

Today that has partly changed under rules observed in most advanced medical systems, says Szego, acting director of the Centre for Clinical Ethics, a joint venture of St. Michaels Hospital, St. Josephs Health Centre and Providence Healthcare.

If Henrietta Lacks were to walk into Johns Hopkins today and get her cervical cancer biopsied (for research) they would need to get her consent prior to doing that, he says.

And Woodgett notes that patients would often need to give further consent before their tissues were used in new and different research.

As well, Szego says, no tissues of genetic anomalies used in research today can be labelled with identifying information.

Yet even today, consent is strictly required only for tissues explicitly obtained for medical research, Szego says.

Cells or other materials taken during routine treatments an artery snipped out during heart surgery for example are considered medical waste and can be used in labs without the approval of patients from whom theyre taken, he says.

So does the movie do justice to Lackss story and the medical and ethical complexities it has raised?

Like many authors whose books have been brought to the screen, Skloot is somewhat ambivalent about the Winfrey movie.

I had 400 pages to tell the story so I got to say everything I wanted to say about Henrietta, about the science, about just everything, she says.

Much of this rich detail was jettisoned for the 95-minute movie. As a writer I want every single fact in a movie, Skloot says. But on balance, she believes Deborah Lacks would have approved.

Of course there are some things in it that are fictionalized, she says.

But I think in essence it really captures Deborahs desires and her quest and her journey in a way that I think she would be happy with.

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How poor tobacco farmer Henrietta Lacks became a medical superstar after her death - Toronto Star

Newswise Winner of the Vesalius Award, Michael Bohl, MD, presented his research, Cheating Death: A Neurosurgical History of Human Resuscitation, Reanimation, and the Pursuit of Immortality, during the 2017 American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) Annual Scientific Meeting.

For millennia, adventurers searched for the mythical Fountain of Youth in hopes of achieving immortality. The late European Renaissance saw the emergence of a more practical method for pursuing longevity: evidence-based medicine. This historical analysis details the last 500 years of physician-led efforts to cheat death, and specifically, the neurosurgeons role in the scientific and literary canons of human immortality.

Case reports of hypothermic patients surviving typically fatal circumstances prompted early surgical pioneers, such as John Hunter, to perform the first methodical experiments on human resuscitation. His work with hypothermia and electrical stimulation interested The Royal Humane Society, which years later sponsored an infamous attempt by Giovanni Aldini to reanimate the body of an executed criminal before a crowd of Londons social elite. Attending this reanimation was William Godwin, whose descriptions of this event inspired his daughter, Mary Shelley, to write Frankenstein. Temple Fay introduced modern medicine to the neuro-protective power of hypothermia. Although his work was derailed by Nazi physicians at the Dachau concentration camp, he successfully inspired a new generation of neurosurgeons, such as R.J. White. Under hypothermic cerebrovascular arrest, R.J. White successfully performed the first primate head transplant, catching the attention of Russian scientists who were hoping to achieve a method for extending life indefinitely via head transplantation. These efforts coincided and prompted the release of numerous literary and visual works depicting neurosurgeons as mad-scientists and inspired Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero to plan the first human head transplant for 2017.

Author Block: Tyler Steed, MD/PhD; Evgenii Belykh, MD; Nilkolay Martirosyan, MD, PhD; and Mark Preul, MD

Disclosure: The author reported no conflicts of interest.

Media Representatives: The 2017 AANS Annual Scientific Meeting press section will include releases on highlighted scientific research, AANS officers and award winners, Neurosurgery Awareness Month and other relevant information about the 2017 program. Releases will be posted under the Media area on the 2017 AANS Annual Scientific Meeting website. If you have interest in a topic related to neurosurgery or would like to interview a neurosurgeon either onsite or via telephone during the event, please contact Alice Kelsey, AANS associate executive director, via email at aik@aans.org.

About the 2017 AANS Annual Scientific Meeting: Attended by neurosurgeons, neurosurgical residents, medical students, neuroscience nurses, clinical specialists, physician assistants, allied health professionals and other medical professionals, the AANS Annual Scientific Meeting is the largest gathering of neurosurgeons in the nation, with an emphasis on the fields latest research and technological advances. The scientific presentations accepted for the 2017 event will represent cutting-edge examples of the incredible developments taking place within the field of neurosurgery. Find additional information about the 2017 AANS Annual Scientific Meeting and the meeting program here.

Founded in 1931 as the Harvey Cushing Society, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) is a scientific and educational association with more than 10,000 members worldwide. The AANS is dedicated to advancing the specialty of neurological surgery in order to provide the highest quality of neurosurgical care to the public. Fellows of the AANS are board-certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada or the Mexican Council of Neurological Surgery, A.C. Neurosurgery is the medical specialty concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of disorders that affect the spinal column, spinal cord, brain, nervous system and peripheral nerves.

For more information, visit http://www.AANS.org.

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Cheating Death: A Neurosurgical History of Human Resuscitation, Reanimation, and the Pursuit of Immortality - Newswise (press release)

Image Courtesy of Toei Animation

Gotham Season 3, Episode 15 Synopsis: Heroes Rise: How The Riddler Got His Name by Steve Lam

Chris Pratt Explains What Fans Can Expect From Avengers: Infinity War by Erik Swann

The Universal Survival Saga for Dragon Ball Superfocuses on the Tournament of Power. The tournament involves eight out of the twelve existing universes. Ten of the strongest in each universe will fight in a Battle Royal-style match. The losing universes will be eliminated by the Omni-Kings.

On the previous episode of Dragon Ball Super, Goku and No.17 met for the first time. Goku visited No.17 to convince him to join the team. What we ended up getting was the fight that we never had the chance to see in Dragon Ball Z. In the end, No.17 declined Gokus request. Will Goku convince him this episode?

The episode begins with Goku continuing to persuade No.17. Giving one last effort, he mentions that the reward for the winning team is the Super Dragon Balls. He adds that the Super Dragon Balls are planet-sized and more powerful than the Earth ones. No.17 is slightly intrigued.

Before No.17 can decide, his attention is averted by the roar of the Minotaurus. An alien ship (which we saw at the end of the last episode) appears above the island. The ship starts beaming up all the animals on the island. We learned on the last episode that the aliens main target was the Minotaurus.

Goku and No.17 race to enter the spaceship. However, the ship closes before they can enter. Goku uses his Instant Transmission to enter the ship. They are confronted by henchmen. No.17 tells Goku to be careful. He mentions damaging the spaceship will cause it to crash, killing all the animals.

The episode shifts to Krillin and No.18. No.18 expresses concern over Goku and No.17. She mentions that both are similar and have an immature side.

We return to Goku and No.17. They easily deal with the henchmen. Theyre confronted by two bigger henchmen. No.17 tells Goku to deal with them, and hell go after the main boss. Goku mentions that he wants to fight the main boss. The two henchmen attack the two. No.17 dodges them and escapes, able to pursue the main boss. This leaves Goku to deal with the two henchmen.

No.17 confronts the boss. The boss summons two henchmen to attack No.17. He deals with them with ease. The boss is surprised at No.17s strength. The boss decides to attack, but No.17 counters, knocking him back.

Image Courtesy of Toei Animation

Goku catches up with them. No.17 asks the boss why hes after the Minotaurus. The boss mentions that the Minotaurus horns sell for a lot of money. He adds that some believe the horns can create immortality medicine. But the boss only cares about the money. He offers Goku and No.17 money, but both refuse.

No.17 approaches the boss and kicks him to the side. The boss reveals that he has a device that can self-destruct the whole ship. This stops Goku and No.17 in their tracks.

The boss pushes the button on the device and the ship explodes. Well, not really. We transition to Beerus, who wakes up from a dream. He mentions that he had a dream that Goku had died (the dream being that the ship exploded). Beerus screams that the dream is a bad omen.

We return to Goku and No.17 (still alive and well). The boss is still threatening the two with the device. He mentions a self-destructive device implanted in his body. He tells them that if they let him go, he wont destroy the ship. No.17 decides to sacrifice himself to save the animals. He tells Goku to take care of the animals. He then grabs the boss and flies out of the spaceship. Goku uses his Instant Transmission to catch up with them. He transfers them to King Kais planet.

Image Courtesy of Toei Animation

He tells King Kai that the boss has a self-destructive bomb in him. And he brought him to the planet like he did with Cell. Goku notifies King Kai that the boss isnt strong enough to handle the gravity on the planet, so King Kai has nothing to worry about.

Goku receives a message from Dende. He tells Goku that the boss was lying about having a self-destruct device in his body. No.17 tells the boss to press the switch on the device. The boss presses the switch and confetti flies out his nose. It turns out the device was for a surprise birthday party planned for later.

Goku and No.17 return to Earth. They land the ship safely back on the island. The animals are all let out. As for the boss, he and his henchmen are all arrested by Jaco (the Galactic Patrolman)turns out he had been after the aliens for years. Jaco leaves with the aliens in his own ship.

No.17 lets Goku know that he will join the team. He mentions that hell leave the island to Trunks and Goten. He adds that he will use the Super Dragon Balls to wish for a large cruise ship. His dream is to travel the world with his family. The episode ends with 23 hours and 20 minutes until the start of the tournament.

The episode had a lot of fun elements to it. The highlight was Goku teaming with No.17. The ending of the episode played on how Gokus villains eventually turn to allies. No.17 told Goku that he couldnt believe he wanted to kill him before. Goku responded that Tien, Piccolo, Vegeta, and Buu were all the same.

This episode had nice comedic elements to it also. Beerus and King Kai both provided laugh out loud moments. Even in a serious storyline, the anime still manages to sneak in that famous Dragon Ball humor.

In terms of the storyline, this was another filler episode. The only story advancement is No.17s joining the team. But with the tournament closing in, we expect things to pick up.

What were your thoughts on this episode? Let us know in the comments.

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Dragon Ball Super Episode 87 Recap And Review: "Universal ... - Bam! Smack! Pow!