Henrietta's cells have now been living outside her body far longer than they ever lived inside it. — Donald Defler Henrietta Lacks's cells are the most important thing to ever happen to medicine. Henrietta was a woman from Maryland, raising her family in 1930s Baltimore. Her life was entirely ordinary until it ended — at 31, she died of cancer, and doctors (without previous asking permission of Henrietta or her family) scraped her tumor cells for laboratory use. The cells multiplied in petri dishes, and HeLa cells grew in scientific prominence, again without consulting Henrietta's family. In 2013, the Lacks family began negotiation with the National Institutes of Health to regain control of how their ancestor's genome is used in future research.
A Woman to Know: Henrietta Lacks
A Woman to Know: Henrietta Lacks
A Woman to Know: Henrietta Lacks
Henrietta's cells have now been living outside her body far longer than they ever lived inside it. — Donald Defler Henrietta Lacks's cells are the most important thing to ever happen to medicine. Henrietta was a woman from Maryland, raising her family in 1930s Baltimore. Her life was entirely ordinary until it ended — at 31, she died of cancer, and doctors (without previous asking permission of Henrietta or her family) scraped her tumor cells for laboratory use. The cells multiplied in petri dishes, and HeLa cells grew in scientific prominence, again without consulting Henrietta's family. In 2013, the Lacks family began negotiation with the National Institutes of Health to regain control of how their ancestor's genome is used in future research.