Hooked on Biology

Today, we shall scratch the surface on HeLa cells. Overview: - What are HeLa cells? - Where did they come from? - Why are they so important? - Ethics Things What are HeLa cells? HeLa cells, also known as Hela or hela cells, are a strain of human cell that can be cultured without dying. When they were first cultured in Ye Olden Days (late 1940s, early 1950s) it was a really big deal because previously, human cells would die after a few days. The guy who figured this out, George Otto Gey, freely distributed this cell line, which, slay of him ig. We will talk more about this later. HeLa cells aren't actually anything super fancy, except they are good because they do not die (they are immortal cells, meaning they do not have the normal self-destruct that other cells do after replicating a certain number of times called senescence ) and they are human tissue which means human research. Nice. Where did they come from? Being human tissue, it would be reasonable to assume they came from a ...

Endometriosis is a disease that we often don't talk about, but there's a very high chance you know someone with it. I won't spoil too much, before we begin, so let's dive into it! Overview: - What endo is + symptoms - History - Relevance to medicine + society overall Intro to Endo Endometriosis is classically defined as a disease of the fertile woman which is only mostly  true. Endo is a condition where uterine cells are found outside of the uterus, shedding each month which can result in scarring, pain, swelling, and...yeah. Not fun. Almost 50% of people with endo are infertile, however, statistics are likely inaccurate because many doctors are unaware of endo's existence, don't consider it, or dismiss the symptoms and signs. You may have noticed I said "people" instead of women, and yes, I do mean anyone with a uterus, but people born without a uterus can also have endometriosis which is quite unfortunate for them and is usually even worse because of...