AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Scientists use HeLa cells to discover how the presence of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) can lead to certain types of cervical cancer. The discovery that HPV can lead to cervical cancer paves the way for development of one of the first anti-cancer vaccines. This work later leads to a Nobel Prize in 2008 for Dr.

Detailed explanation-2: -They 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 and COVID-19 vaccines.

Detailed explanation-3: -Over the past several decades, this cell line has contributed to many medical breakthroughs, from research on the effects of zero gravity in outer space and the development of polio and COVID-19 vaccines, to the study of leukemia, the AIDS virus and cancer worldwide.

Detailed explanation-4: -The most significant issue with HeLa cells is how aggressively they can contaminate other cell cultures in a laboratory. Scientists don’t routinely test the purity of their cell lines, so HeLa had contaminated many in vitro lines (estimated 10 to 20 percent) before the problem was identified.

Detailed explanation-5: -Henrietta Lacks passed away in October 1951 at 31 years old. But the doctor who studied her cancer cells discovered that they could multiply continuously in the lab–unlike other patients’ cells, which died quickly. This led scientists to call HeLa cells the first “immortal” line of human cells.