So excited about this book--science, mystery and human interest 2010-07-29

Reviewer: Candace Drimmer

Who would have thunk a science based book could be so exciting, I can hardly take the time to put it down to write this. Wrapping mystery with human interest, and a huge amount of science--Skloot has a winner in this book. If the library doesn't have a copy available--buy one. You don't want to wait to read this.

Revenge and Exoneration in Science. Huh!?. 2010-07-28

Reviewer: William C. Wright

I was engrossed by this book.
My admiration and gratitude goes out to Professor Rebecca Skloot and to the Lacks family! Congratulations!

Having worked in the field of tissue culture, human genetics, cancer research and dealing with the problems of cell line contamination, especially by HeLa Cells, I found this book helpful in telling the personal and family story of the Lacks family that we, I, often wondered about.
Very Moving. In fact the story would make a great Movie!

The book also gave a lot of history about the early days of tissue culture and emphasized the importance of the break-through in tissue culture media development and the use of HeLa cells in the battle against polio. I found this interesting.

Personally, I was frustrated in getting my Ph.D. partly because of the HeLa cell contamination described in the book. My Ph.D professor would not let me bring into the lab another very aggressively growing cell line for my research because he thought it might contaminate other cell lines in the lab, like HeLa had.
A delay of a year and a half took a significant bite out of my 3 year scholarship.

Anyway, several years later, I had the chance for "revenge" and "exoneration" when I was able to confirm all the 14 or more HeLa cell suspect cell lines were indeed all the same genetically, using multiple polymorphic enzyme markers I learned to type in my Ph.D. professor's lab.

I also exonerated many other cancer cell lines as being bona fide and above suspicion of being contaminant cell lines because of their differences in the polymorphic enzymes they had - they had a genetic finger-print.
They could be used with confidence in cancer and biological research.

My work also found another contamination group of cell lines, all originating from one laboratory, that was subsequently published - alerting the research community.

A Tale of Modern Ethics 2010-07-28

Reviewer: D. B. Gray

A sad and morally complicated story about the commercialization of the HeLa cells and the affect it has had on the "donors'" family. These cells harvested, under questionable means, by a John Hopkins doctor in the 1950's were used in many scientific experiments but for all the good they have done, the "donor" family is deeply scared from the exploitation.
The author becomes involved with the skeptical Lacks family and does her best to inform them of what actually happened to their mother's tissue. In particular the author finally gains the trust of the daughter and teaches her on the history of her mother. There is hope that this enlightenment will help the family heal this decades old wound.

Disappointing book 2010-07-27

Reviewer: John J. Boren

High on the list of science books, Amazon listed "The Immortal Life.." I had just finished reading a science book, "The Anatomy of an Epidemic," by Robert Whitaker, and I found it a "knock-your-socks-off" educational experience--and interesting! I wanted to read another science book, so I downloaded this book by Rebecca Skloot to my Kindle. I thought I might learn about cell culture, how cell cultures can be used to discover new treatments for cancer, etc. What I found instead were a few scattered pages about cell culture, especially of Henrietta Lacks's cancer cells, and countless pages that droned on and on with details about how Henrietta Lacks and her family were poorly treated in the 1950's. Someone interested in the bad treatment of blacks in the 1950's might like this book, but I much preferred Whitaker's book on mental disorders and psychotropic meds for interesting scientific information.

HeLa is good reading 2010-07-26

Reviewer: Jen808

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a fascinating story. I bought the CD box set and listen to it as I go about driving Some of the details about the cellular research are kind of heavy. However the author weaves in enough of the story of the Lacks family to more than compensate for those of us who have very little background in the scientific aspects of the book. I am glad that I am listening to it instead of reading it because I believe that I would have put the book down due to the scientific details. I think the telling of this story reveals why it is so important to understand the concept of informed consent and bioethics. I highly recommend the book because it does provide clear evidence of the abuses that are possible when one does not understand a process or procedure.