MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'hela'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:39:48 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4418798&cid=t_317060_139_f&fid=38879&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.rawvoice.com%2Fpmn_twiv%2Ftraffic.libsyn.com%2Ftwiv%2FTWiV118.mp3 Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit On episode #118 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Alan, and Rich answer listener questions about vaccinia virus, fungal viruses, synthetic viruses, influenza vaccine, HeLa cells, multiplicity of infection, and much more. Right click to download TWiV #118 (68 MB .mp3, 94  minutes). Subscribe to TWiV (free) in iTunes , at the Zune Marketplace, by the RSS feed, or by email, or listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app. Links for this episode: Distribution of glycoproteins on virion surface (paper 1, paper 2) – thanks, Conor! Susceptibility of cancer cell lines to tanapox (thanks, Cheryl!) Poxvirus family tree Sugar, the bitter truth (YouTube) – thanks, Mary! BBC podcast: Artificial life (thank... virology blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4418798 Sun, 30 Jan 2011 17:54:39 +0100 4418798 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4314006&cid=t_317060_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fhenrietta-lacks-and-her-immortal-cells%2F2011.01.05 If you like science, true history, and an engaging story, pick up the new book by journalist Rebecca Skloot, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” and prepare for a great read. I knew nothing about the young black woman whose cells were taken back in 1951 by a scientist at Johns Hopkins Hospital and how those cells have revolutionized modern cell biology and research. The HeLa (named after HEnrietta LAcks) cells were taken as she lay dying on the “colored” ward at Johns Hopkins Hospital of aggressive cervical cancer at age 30. Everyone who studies basic cell biology has heard of HeLa cells because they were the first human cell line to be successfully grown in culture and they are alive today. HeLa cells were sent to researchers all across the globe and have been... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4314006 Wed, 05 Jan 2011 20:00:00 +0100 4314006 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3463592&cid=t_317060_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2FyKMxlwsv7PI%2F It’s been awhile since I read a book that has influenced  my thinking.  Maybe it’s because I don’t read as many books for “fun” as I used to.  Maybe it’s because I’ve been pre-occupied with ARRA and HITECH related work or my graduate school course on medical ethics or my teenager’s triumphs and despair as she awaited college acceptance decisions.   But there I was driving in my car listening to a National Public Radio (NPR) segment.  Actually it was Fresh Air with Terry Gross. For the next several minutes I found myself drawn in by an interview with a science journalist named Rebecca Skloot, who wrote a book called “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.” Now I’ve worked in the health care field for more than 35 years and lived in the Maryland-DC area for... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3463592 Tue, 13 Apr 2010 12:33:05 +0100 3463592 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3275770&cid=t_317060_87_f&fid=35052&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FWomensBioethicsBlog%2F%7E3%2Fdh0EGe4vrZA%2Fhela-cells-and-immortal-life-of.html I had the pleasure of being one of the fact-checkers and proof reviewers on Rebecca Skloot's book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and I'm pleased to see that it is now on the NY Times Bestseller list and that Rebecca is well into her book tour.   Rebecca retells the story of Henrietta Lacks and her family and masterfully weaves it into compelling story, that rivets your attention and illustrates just how far we've come in and how far yet we have to go in human subject experimentation.   Here is a short excerpt to whet your appetite: [On January 29, 1951, David Lacks sat behind the wheel of his old Buick, watching the rain fall. He was parked under a towering oak tree outside Johns Hopkins Hospital with three of his children—two still in diapers—waiting for t... Women's Bioethics Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3275770 Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:30:05 +0100 3275770 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3148844&cid=t_317060_139_f&fid=38879&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FVirologyBlog%2F%7E3%2FhRQT9ZOJUn8%2F Shortly after I wrote about my years of experience with HeLa cells, I was contacted by author Rebecca Skloot. One of her many questions was how I knew that I had produced 800 billion HeLa cells in my laboratory over 26 years. I learned that she was writing a book about Henrietta Lacks, whose tumor was the source of HeLa cells in 1951. Subsequently I had the privilege of reading an early draft of her book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which will be published next month. I thought I knew enough about HeLa cells and their origins, but Rebecca’s book shattered that impression. I’ve worked with the cells all my career and have always appreciated them, and the fact that Henrietta gave science something fabulous, but the back story I didn’t appreciate. How the whole aff... virology blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3148844 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:44:56 +0100 3148844 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3096386&cid=t_317060_139_f&fid=38879&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FVirologyBlog%2F%7E3%2Fka6DQ1O67f8%2F If you have been following the results of my experiments on inhibition of rhinovirus replication by ZnCl2, you know that I’ve been trying to determine why concentrations of the salt higher than 0.1 mM are toxic to HeLa cells. I have found that 0.1 mM ZnCl2 does inhibit rhinovirus plaque formation but not sufficiently to be able to select resistant mutants. In today’s set of experiments I asked whether the presence of MgCl2 in the agar overlay potentiates zinc toxicity. We always include MgCl2 (40 mM) in the agar overlay when assaying rhinoviruses, because it significantly improves plaque size. The following monolayers of HeLa cells were inoculated with 200 plaque-forming units of rhinovirus type 1a, then incubated at 32°C for 5 days. The effect of MgCl2 is remarkable. The use... virology blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3096386 Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:36:08 +0100 3096386 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3082218&cid=t_317060_139_f&fid=38879&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FVirologyBlog%2F%7E3%2F6aCAHqnXJj8%2F My experiments to understand how ZnCl2 inhibits rhinovirus replication have been thwarted by the finding that concentrations of the salt higher than 0.1 mM are toxic for cultured HeLa cells. The cells can tolerate 0.1 mM but not 0.2 mM ZnCl2. Last week I asked whether I could identify a concentration between 0.1 and 0.2 mM that does not harm the cells but inhibits viral plaque formation >99%. Here are the results. Unfortunately even 0.125 mM ZnCl2 is toxic to the cells – which is surprising since the cells can tolerate 0.1 mM. The goal of these experiments is to identify Zn-resistant rhinovirus mutants, and this cannot be done with cell monolayers that are not healthy. I have one more idea for how to get around the ZnCl2 toxicity. To improve the formation of rhinovirus plaques, ... virology blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3082218 Fri, 11 Dec 2009 22:18:29 +0100 3082218