Please enable javascript to see: All 50 uses | her cancer--it came from a DNA mistake. – DNA = the molecule that contains the genetic code – Chpt 3.32 | 'Within the DNA in that picture is...

menu

vocabulary

1000+ books

All 50 Uses of

DNA

in

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Today, when we hear the word clone, we imagine scientists creating entire living animals—like Dolly the famous cloned sheep—using DNA from one parent.†
Chpt 2.13

Researchers had long believed that human cells contained forty-eight chromosomes, the threads of DNA inside cells that contain all of our genetic information.†
Chpt 2.13

In fact, doing so would have forever connected Henrietta and her family with the cells and any medical information eventually derived from their DNA.†
Chpt 2.14

For scientists doing research that wasn't cell-specific, like investigating the effects of radiation on DNA, not knowing what kind of cell they were working on might not affect the outcome of their research.†
Chpt 2.18

They fused HeLa cells with mouse cells and created the first human-animal hybrids—cells that contained equal amounts of DNA from Henrietta and a mouse.†
Chpt 2.18

Hybrids proved it was possible for DNA from two unrelated individuals, even of different species, to survive together inside cells without one rejecting the other, which meant the mechanism for rejecting transplanted organs had to be outside cells.†
Chpt 2.18

With that publication, Henrietta's doctor and his colleagues forever linked Henrietta, Lawrence, Sonny, Deborah, Zakariyya, their children, and all future generations of Lackses to the HeLa cells, and the DNA inside them.†
Chpt 2.22

But doing that would require DNA samples from her immediate family—preferably her husband as well as her children—to compare their DNA to HeLa's and create a map of Henrietta's genes.†
Chpt 3.23

But doing that would require DNA samples from her immediate family—preferably her husband as well as her children—to compare their DNA to HeLa's and create a map of Henrietta's genes.†
Chpt 3.23

If they had access to DNA from Henrietta's children, they could not only solve the contamination problem but also study Henrietta's cells in entirely new ways.†
Chpt 3.23

Toward the end of our conversation, Hsu mentioned that she could learn much more from testing the family's blood today, since DNA technology had advanced so much since the seventies.†
Chpt 3.23

Lacks," and "HeLa," McKusick, Hsu, and several coauthors mapped forty-three different genetic markers present in DNA from Day and two of the Lacks children, and used those to create a map of Henrietta's DNA that scientists could use to help identify HeLa cells in culture.†
Chpt 3.24

Lacks," and "HeLa," McKusick, Hsu, and several coauthors mapped forty-three different genetic markers present in DNA from Day and two of the Lacks children, and used those to create a map of Henrietta's DNA that scientists could use to help identify HeLa cells in culture.†
Chpt 3.24

Today, no scientist would dream of publishing a person's name with any of their genetic information, because we know how much can be deduced from DNA, including the risks of developing certain diseases.†
Chpt 3.24

But the Lackses didn't talk to a lawyer—they didn't even know anyone had done research on their DNA, let alone published it.†
Chpt 3.24

They learned that HPV inserts its DNA into the DNA of the host cell, where it produces proteins that lead to cancer.†
Chpt 3.27

They learned that HPV inserts its DNA into the DNA of the host cell, where it produces proteins that lead to cancer.†
Chpt 3.27

They also found that when they blocked the HPV DNA, cervical cancer cells stopped being cancerous.†
Chpt 3.27

Research into HPV eventually uncovered how Henrietta's cancer started: HPV inserted its DNA into the long arm of her eleventh chromosome and essentially turned off her p53 tumor suppressor gene.†
Chpt 3.27

Normally, HIV can infect only blood cells, but Axel had inserted a specific DNA sequence from a blood cell into HeLa cells, which made it possible for HIV to infect them as well.†
Chpt 3.27

Axel's research caught the attention of Jeremy Rifkin, an author and activist who was deeply involved in a growing public debate over whether scientists should alter DNA.†
Chpt 3.27

Rifkin and many others believed that any manipulation of DNA, even in a controlled laboratory setting, was dangerous because it might lead to genetic mutations and make it possible to engineer "designer babies."†
Chpt 3.27

They're exposed to chemicals, sunlight, and different environments, all of which can cause DNA changes.†
Chpt 3.27

But even today some scientists argue that it's factually incorrect to say that HeLa cells are related to Henrietta, since their DNA is no longer genetically identical to hers.†
Chpt 3.27

But if you could get a sample from Henrietta's body today and do DNA fingerprinting on it, her DNA would match the DNA in HeLa cells."†
Chpt 3.27

But if you could get a sample from Henrietta's body today and do DNA fingerprinting on it, her DNA would match the DNA in HeLa cells."†
Chpt 3.27

But if you could get a sample from Henrietta's body today and do DNA fingerprinting on it, her DNA would match the DNA in HeLa cells."†
Chpt 3.27

They also knew that there was a string of DNA at the end of each chromosome called a telomere, which shortened a tiny bit each time a cell divided, like time ticking off a clock.†
Chpt 3.27

After hearing a researcher talk about cloning, Deborah asked Sharrer whether it was possible to take DNA from HeLa cells and put it into one of Deborah's eggs to bring her mother back to life.†
Chpt 3.28

To the trained eye, FISH can uncover detailed information about a person's DNA.†
Chpt 3.29

That's where all her DNA at."†
Chpt 3.30

Then he walked slowly back to his building, holding the picture in front of him at eye level, seeing nothing ahead but the DNA in his mother's cells.†
Chpt 3.30

She'd Googled HeLa, clone, London, and DNA, and gotten thousands of hits with summaries like this, from an online chat-room discussion about HeLa cells: "Each contains a genetic blueprint for constructing Henrietta Lacks….†
Chpt 3.31

Christoph led us into a small laboratory crammed full of microscopes, pipettes, and containers with words like BIOHAZARD and DNA written on their sides.†
Chpt 3.32

"Everybody always talking about cells and DNA," Deborah said at one point, "but I don't understand what's DNA and what's her cells."†
Chpt 3.32

"Everybody always talking about cells and DNA," Deborah said at one point, "but I don't understand what's DNA and what's her cells."†
Chpt 3.32

Christoph said, excited, "DNA is what's inside the cell!†
Chpt 3.32

Inside each nucleus, if we could zoom in closer, you'd see a piece of DNA that looked like this."†
Chpt 3.32

"There's forty-six of those pieces of DNA in every human nucleus.†
Chpt 3.32

"Within the DNA in that picture is all the genetic information that made Henrietta Henrietta," Christoph told them.†
Chpt 3.32

"Well, all that information came from her DNA," he said.†
Chpt 3.32

her cancer--it came from a DNA mistake.
Chpt 3.32 *

DNA = the molecule that contains the genetic code

She'd heard many times that she'd inherited some of the DNA inside those cells from her mother.†
Chpt 3.32

She didn't want to hear that her mother's cancer was in that DNA too.†
Chpt 3.32

The good news for you is that children don't inherit those kinds of changes in DNA from their parents—they just come from being exposed to the virus."†
Chpt 3.32

And both of those cells will have your mother's DNA in them."†
Chpt 3.32

For Deborah and her family—and surely many others in the world—that answer was so much more concrete than the explanation offered by science: that the immortality of Henrietta's cells had something to do with her telomeres and how HPV interacted with her DNA.†
Chpt 3.36

And for several years the public has been sending samples by the millions to personalized DNA testing companies like 23andMe, which only provide customers with their personal medical or genealogical information if they first sign a form granting permission for their samples to be stored for future research.†
Chpt Aft.

And a growing number of tissue "donors" are suing for control of their samples and the DNA inside them.†
Chpt Aft.

Lori Andrews, director of the Institute for Science, Law and Technology at the Illinois Institute of Technology, wants something more drastic: she has called for people to get policymakers' attention by becoming "conscientious objectors in the DNA draft" and refusing to give tissue samples.†
Chpt Aft.

Click For
Best Example Sentences
From Other Sources
Highlighting 2 Senses of the Word

Definition:

(DNA)
cell structures that transmit genetic information which determines inherited traits such as hair color or height