Henrietta Lacks genome

Doing a little research on Henrietta Lacks, I came across this 2013 New York Times article that indicates  the National Institutes of Health did come to an agreement with the family of Henrietta Lacks for the use of the HeLa cell line for medical research.

Her cervical cancer (which she died of) was caused by HPV infection, they have found its location in her genome.  That's likely why her cells are so resilient as well, permitting their long term use as a research tool.

I note the agreement did not include financial compensation to the family. Instead a research review board has been established, and the Lacks family has two seats on the board.

One big concern with genomic research is privacy concerns for descendants.  I look forward to that as a topic of discussion in this meeting.

There's a collection of supplemental materials including interviews with Rebecca Skloot and Deborah Lacks available here.

Hopefully everyone is somewhere close to page 100 of the current selection.

Discussion of Stranger in a Strange Land

We met on April 30th to discuss Stranger in a Strange Land.   In attendance were:

Dave & Mary
Darryl & Barbara
Katherine
Alice
Kwame
Gayla

Barbara opened the discussion with observations about the statuary of Rodin referenced in the book. The statues are the Fallen Caryatid and the She who used to be beautiful Heaulimiere.

In the edition she read, the cover shows the Fallen Caryatid, but not the one Michael actually purchased for Jubal, the Heaulimiere!  My copy does not show a statue on the cover, but we looked up the two statues on google images and discussed them at some length, including why the publisher may have chosen the one for the cover rather than the one Michael gave to Jubal.  Barbara found a poem associated with the Heaulimiere, but it was too long to read for the group, so instead we read Fallen Caryatid Carrying Her Stone by Shari Zollinger.

The discussion was very lively.  I chose questions from LitLovers, but really they weren't necessary and didn't get used in the discussion.  The discussion focused on religion, polyamory, and how to understand the Martians, including how Michael could have been raised by the martians given how they raised their own young, and how to think about the Old Ones.

Of those who had read the book, it seemed most folks enjoyed the book.  It was a re-read for a few people, who noted the book didn't carry the same meaning as we remembered from when we read it as teenagers.

Our next read is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  We selected The Warden to follow Henrietta Lacks.

We did not identify anyone for the poem next time.  If anyone would like to volunteer, you could comment here, or shoot me an email message.