On a rainy afternoon in late-April San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH) held its Primary Care Ground Rounds in the Carr Auditorium. The 150-seat hall was overflowing with clinicians, researchers, and others who’d come for a brown bag lunch featuring Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  The free event, sponsored by various SFGH departments and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), included a roster of prestigious participants.  Dr. Teresa Villela welcomed the audience before introducing Dr. Frank E. Staggers, past president of the California Medical Association, who in turn presented Skloot. The articulate author spoke and read from her book, which focuses on an important, and largely unknown, chapter in the history and ethics of research using human biological materials.

Henrietta Lacks was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who died of cervical cancer in 1951 at the age of 31. Her diseased cells, taken without her knowledge, became an important tool in medicine as the first “immortal” human cells grown in culture. HeLa cells were used to develop the polio vaccine; helped uncover the secrets of cancer, viruses, and the effects of the atom bomb; contributed to in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet, until now, Henrietta Lacks remained virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave, her family unable to afford health insurance. The story of the Lacks family—past and present—is inextricably connected to the troubling history of experimentation on African-Americans, the birth of bioethics, and legal battles over who controls biological materials.

Skloot’s presentation was followed by comments from community programs manager Priscilla J. Banks, who emceed a series of provocative questions posed by Barbara A. Brenner, Breast Cancer Action’s executive director; Dr. Alicia Fernandez; John Heldens, UCSF Human Research Protection Program director; and Karen Pierce, Bayview Hunters Point Health and Environmental Assessment Program manager, with a final wrap up by Dr. Bernard Lo. The issues raised, expertly addressed by Skloot, included the importance of instructing medical professionals on how to communicate about core values, such as informed consent, with patients who may fear science and don’t “speak” its “language,” especially in situations where disparities such as racism, poverty, cultural and class inequalities exist.

For more information about the book and how to contribute to the Henrietta Lacks Foundation, benefiting the Lacks family, visit: rebeccaskloot.com.