Morgan State ASCEND Scholars Attend 9th Annual Henrietta Lacks Symposium, Meet NIH Director Francis Collins

By Chukwuebuka E.C. Eburuoh, ASCEND Scholar

On October 6, 2018, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Medicine hosted its 9th Annual Henrietta Lacks Symposium, to show appreciation for Lacks’ contribution to biomedical research. Morgan State University ASCEND Scholars Chukwuebuka Eburuoh, Jyoti Maharjan, and Damion Trotter, along with near-peer mentor Opuruiche Ibekwe, attended the event.

The program began with a speech from Aiyana Rogers, the great-granddaughter of Henrietta Lacks. Rogers gave a brief history of Lacks' life and how her immortal cells, designated HeLa for the first two letters of her first and last names, enabled major biomedical breakthroughs. Then the event went on to give information on the importance of ethics in health research and the importance of health research to better the community. Roland Pattillo, M.D., Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Morehouse School of Medicine, spoke about his history with Lacks and her family, and discussed the plethora of research he conducted using HeLa cells.

The Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute presents awards to individuals and groups to commemorate Lacks. This year, the group Older Women Embracing Life (OWEL) won the Henrietta Lacks Memorial Award for conducting research that helps the community of Baltimore in partnership with Johns Hopkins. OWEL educates older, HIV-positive women about how to live healthier lives and provides them with the support they need to embrace life. Taylor-Lee Neal, a senior at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, was awarded a Henrietta Lacks Scholarship for Neal's wonderful essays and academic achievements. Johns Hopkins also announced that a building will be built and named after Henrietta Lacks as a symbol of the important relationship between research and family.

NIH Director Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., was the keynote speaker. Collins gave an informative timeline of how HeLa cells were discovered to be immortal and how they have been used in several different forms of biomedical research. He stated that since 1953, over 100,000 papers in over 142 countries tied to use of HeLa cells have been published, and research with HeLa cells has resulted in three Nobel Prizes. Collins also talked about the “All of Us Research Program” that launched May 6, 2018, which incorporates minorities in biomedical research and takes into account differences in lifestyles, socioeconomics, ages, races, gender, and geographies to build the richest, largest biomedical resource ever.

Morgan State ASCEND Scholars Chukwuebuka Eburuoh and Damion Trotter had the privilege to meet with Collins during the intermission.

“Dr. Collins expressed how much he was pleased to hear about the wonderful exposure to research that we received as part of the ASCEND biomedical research program at Morgan State," Eburuoh said. "He also talked about how he’s currently conducting research using the gene-editing technique, CRISPR-Cas9. Dr. Collins gave us his business card and encouraged us to contact him directly for any potential summer research internship opportunities at the NIH campus. It was quite an honor to have such a friendly encounter with such a significant figure in the world of biomedical research.”

In this photo (From left to right): Morgan State ASCEND Scholar Damion Trotter, NIH Director Francis Collins, and ASCEND Scholar Chukwuebuka Eburuoh at the 2018 Henrietta Lacks Memorial Lecture, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland