{"id":76019,"date":"2021-04-30T13:17:31","date_gmt":"2021-04-30T17:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=76019"},"modified":"2025-09-30T09:26:45","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T13:26:45","slug":"henrietta-lacks-biology-lab-bursary","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/henrietta-lacks-biology-lab-bursary\/","title":{"rendered":"Carleton Biology Lab Renamed and Bursary Established In Honour of Henrietta Lacks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Carleton Biology Lab Renamed and Bursary Established In Honour of Henrietta Lacks\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

In 1951, a 31-year-old Black mother of five named Henrietta Lacks was in medical distress and went to Baltimore\u2019s Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she was diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Henrietta
Henrietta Lacks historical marker in Clover, VA (Photo: Emw, CC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Despite treatment, she passed away eight months later. Unbeknownst to Lacks or her family, cells retrieved during a biopsy were sent to a tissue lab, where researchers made a remarkable discovery: unlike similar cell samples, which died quickly, Henrietta\u2019s cells doubled every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past seven decades, these so called \u201cHeLa cells\u201d have continued to multiply. They\u2019ve been used in more than 75,000 studies around the world, helping scientists \u201cstudy the effects of toxins, drugs, hormones and viruses on the growth of cancer cells without experimenting on humans,\u201d says the Johns Hopkins website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Nadeea
Nadeea Rahim<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey have been used to test the effects of radiation and poisons, to study the human genome, to learn more about how viruses work, and played a crucial role in the development of the polio vaccine.\u201d They have also been part of the effort to develop COVID-19 vaccines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lacks\u2019 family didn\u2019t learn about this legacy<\/a> for more than 20 years after she died \u2014 a story that spawned a bestselling non-fiction book<\/a> and a film featuring Oprah Winfrey<\/a>. They have received no compensation for the millions of dollars the cells have generated or the approximately 17,000 resulting patents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Oreoluwa
Oreoluwa Idowu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

HeLa cells have also been used in a pair of upper-year cell biology courses at Carleton University for the past 10 years, which is one of the reasons why Nadeea Rahim, a fourth-year Biology and Human Rights student, launched the Carleton HeLa initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the support of the Lacks family, it aims to raise awareness<\/a> about the contribution Henrietta Lacks has made to modern science<\/a> by renaming the biology lab where HeLa cells are used in her honour, sharing her story on a plaque outside the lab, and establishing a bursary for undergraduate Biology students<\/a> at the university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All three of these plans were approved by Carleton\u2019s Board of Governors at its meeting on April 29, 2021. A first-floor lab in the Tory Building will be renamed the Lacks Lab, a plaque will be installed outside the lab, and the Henrietta Lacks Award will be created for a second-year Biology student who is Black and identifies as a woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Isabelle
Isabelle Hoddinott<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t change history \u2014 it\u2019s a matter of going forward and acknowledging her contributions,\u201d says Rahim, whose honours research thesis explores reproductive violence against Black women in the United States, and who worked on this initiative with a small team of her fellow Carleton students: Emily Scott, Oreoluwa Idowu, Isabelle Hoddinott, Maha Ali and Marwa Zoubeidi.<\/p>\n\n\n

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“We wanted to acknowledge Henrietta Lacks because she is an example of what Black women have experienced in health care throughout history and continue to experience today.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n

Biology and Human Rights <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Rahim, who is from Ottawa, was encouraged to pursue higher education by her Bengali mother, who wanted her daughters to have opportunities that she didn\u2019t get while growing up amid the sexism and gender inequities of Bangladesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Maha
Maha Ali<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

She attributes her decision to study biology to the freedom of choice instilled by her family, and by the successful female scientist role models she was exposed to from a young age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rahim initially wanted to become a doctor, but she wasn\u2019t enjoying the clinical side of her early university classes. She shifted her focus to include human rights and is now planning to apply for a master\u2019s degree rooted in refugee issues, perhaps within Carleton\u2019s Migration and Diaspora Studies<\/a> program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Emily
Emily Scott<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Seeking acknowledgment for Henrietta Lacks reflects Rahim\u2019s intertwined interest in biology and human rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis initiative represents a set of meaningful actions that will help address the social context of science on campus,\u201d says Biology Prof. Roslyn Dakin<\/a>, \u201cand what\u2019s really impressive is that this whole endeavour has been led by, and strongly supported by, our students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Marwa
Marwa Zoubeidi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to acknowledge Henrietta Lacks because she is an example of what Black women have experienced throughout history and continue to experience today,\u201d says Rahim.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cAt the end of the day, they are human, and we need to acknowledge and understand the intersectionality of race and gender in their everyday experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cBut we can\u2019t homogenize every woman\u2019s experience into one symbol. This is just one story, and there are so many more stories that we can look to and learn from.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—
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In 1951, a 31-year-old Black mother of five named Henrietta Lacks was in medical distress and went to Baltimore\u2019s Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she was diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer. Despite treatment, she passed away eight months later. Unbeknownst to Lacks or her family, cells retrieved during a biopsy were sent to a tissue lab, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":76065,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[28],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-76019","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-community-partnerships"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/76019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/76019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97240,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/76019\/revisions\/97240"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=76019"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=76019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}