Thermo Fisher Scientific settles with family of Henrietta Lacks, whose HeLa cells uphold medicine

Australia News News

Thermo Fisher Scientific settles with family of Henrietta Lacks, whose HeLa cells uphold medicine
Australia Latest News,Australia Headlines
  • 📰 denverpost
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 64 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 29%
  • Publisher: 72%

Decades after doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took Henrietta Lacks’ cervical cells without her knowledge, a lawyer for her descendants said they have reached a settlement with a company that they accused of reaping billions from a racist medical system.

By LEA SKENE and SARAH BRUMFIELD

The settlement came after closed-door negotiations that lasted all day Monday inside the federal courthouse in Baltimore. Some of Lacks’ grandchildren were among the family members who attended the talks. HeLa cells were discovered to have unique properties. While most cell samples died shortly after being removed from the body, her cells survived and thrived in laboratories. They became known as the first immortalized human cell line because scientists could cultivate her cells indefinitely. That meant scientists anywhere could reproduce studies using identical cells.

Lacks died at age 31 in the “colored ward” of Johns Hopkins Hospital. She was buried in an unmarked grave. “The exploitation of Henrietta Lacks represents the unfortunately common struggle experienced by Black people throughout history,” the complaint reads. “Too often, the history of medical experimentation in the United States has been the history of medical racism.”

Though her relatives hadn’t received financial compensation, they did reach an agreement with the National Institutes of Health in 2013 that gave them some control over how the DNA code from HeLa cells is used. The deal came after the family raised privacy concerns about making Lacks’ genetic makeup public.

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

denverpost /  🏆 13. in US

Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Thermo Fisher Scientific settles with family of Henrietta Lacks, whose HeLa cells uphold medicineThermo Fisher Scientific settles with family of Henrietta Lacks, whose HeLa cells uphold medicineBREAKING: The family of Henrietta Lacks is settling a lawsuit against a biotechnology company they accused of taking her cervical cells without her knowledge. They accused the company's leaders of reaping billions of dollars from a racist medical system.
Read more »

Thermo Fisher Scientific settles with family of Henrietta Lacks, whose HeLa cells uphold medicineThermo Fisher Scientific settles with family of Henrietta Lacks, whose HeLa cells uphold medicineThe family of Henrietta Lacks is settling a lawsuit against a biotechnology company it accuses of improperly profiting from her cells
Read more »

Thermo Fisher Scientific settles with family of Henrietta Lacks, whose HeLa cells uphold medicineThermo Fisher Scientific settles with family of Henrietta Lacks, whose HeLa cells uphold medicineMore than 70 years after doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took Henrietta Lacks’ cervical cells without her knowledge, a lawyer for her descendants said they have reached a settlement with a biotechnology company that they accused of reaping billions of dollars from a racist medical system. Reproduced infinitely ever since, HeLa cells have become a cornerstone of modern medicine, enabling countless scientific and medical innovations, including the development of the polio vaccine, genetic mapping and even COVID-19 vaccines. Despite that incalculable impact, the Lacks family had never been compensated.
Read more »

Henrietta Lacks’ family settles with Thermo Fisher Scientific over HeLa cell lineHenrietta Lacks’ family settles with Thermo Fisher Scientific over HeLa cell lineAttorneys announced the settlement on what would have been Lacks' 103rd birthday.
Read more »

Thermo Fisher settles Henrietta Lacks lawsuit over 'HeLa' cell lineThermo Fisher settles Henrietta Lacks lawsuit over 'HeLa' cell lineLaboratory equipment maker Thermo Fisher Scientific has settled a lawsuit brought by the estate of Henrietta Lacks, whose cells have fueled biomedical research for decades, lawyers for the estate said on Tuesday.
Read more »

Henrietta Lacks’s family reaches settlement in extracted cell lawsuitHenrietta Lacks’s family reaches settlement in extracted cell lawsuitHenrietta Lacks's family sued, saying scientific breakthroughs and profits that Thermo Fisher Scientific made came from cells extracted without Lacks’s consent.
Read more »



Render Time: 2025-02-28 10:23:59