In 1951 a Baltimore hospital took a sample of Henrietta Lacks's tumor without asking. Her cells never stopped dividing, quietly powering the polio vaccine, IVF and gene mapping, while her family learned nothing for decades.
A Black tobacco farmer and mother of five from Virginia, who died of cervical cancer at 31 in 1951. She had no idea a piece of her would outlive her by generations.
A clear four-minute explainer on why her tumor cells kept dividing when every other sample died, and what made them biology's first immortal human cell line.
Grown by the trillions, flown around the world, even sent to space. HeLa cells underpin the polio vaccine, IVF, cloning, cancer research and COVID vaccine work.
Rebecca Skloot's bestseller spent years tracking down the family and exposed how science profited from Henrietta while her children couldn't afford health insurance.
Johns Hopkins, the hospital where the cells were taken, on her impact and how it now honors a woman it once never credited.
In August 2023, on what would have been her 103rd birthday, her family settled with a biotech firm that sold her cells, a first step toward consent and credit she was never given.