HENRIETTA LACKS (1920-1951)
Henrietta Lacks’ ‘Immortal’ Cells-stolen without her or her family consent! Unfortunately, her family did not receive one red penny. They were lied to, deceived and manipulated.
Henrietta’s cells were the first immortal human cells ever grown in culture. They were essential to developing the polio vaccine. They went up in the first space missions to see what would happen to cells in zero gravity. Many scientific landmarks since then have used her cells, including cloning, gene mapping and in vitro fertilization. Incredible breakthroughs were derived from her tumor samples—not just in cancer, but for HIV/AIDS, leukemia, polio, and Parkinson disease.
She was a black tobacco farmer from Clover, Virginia who got cervical cancer when she was 30. A doctor at Johns Hopkins took a piece of her tumor without her or her family’s knowledge or consent—sent it down the hall to scientists there who had been trying to grow tissues in culture for decades without success. No one knows why, but her cells never died. That scientist was Dr. Gey.
Dr. Gey, a prominent cancer and virus researcher, had been collecting cells from all patients who came to The Johns Hopkins Hospital with cervical cancer, but each sample quickly died in Dr. Gey’s lab. What he would soon discover was that Mrs. Lacks’ cells were unlike any of the others he had ever seen: where other cells would die, Mrs. Lacks’ cells doubled every 20 to 24 hours.
Twenty-five years after Henrietta died, a scientist discovered that many cell cultures thought to be from other tissue types, including breast and prostate cells, were in fact HeLa cells. It turned out that HeLa cells could float on dust particles in the air and travel on unwashed hands..
Today, these incredible cells— nicknamed “HeLa” cells, from the first two letters of her first and last names — are used to study the effects of toxins, drugs, hormones and viruses on the growth of cancer cells without experimenting on humans. They have been used to test the effects of radiation and poisons.
HeLa cells were in high demand and put into mass production. They were mailed to scientists around the globe for “research into cancer, AIDs, the effects of radiation and toxic substances, gene mapping and countless other scientific pursuits. For these reasons, Representative Elijah Cummings (D-MD), along with a congressional delegation from both chambers, introduced legislation to both honor her role in history and improve access to medical research to traditionally underrepresented groups. That legislation is “ “Henrietta Lacks Enhancing Cancer Research Act of 2019” This bill requires the Government Accountability Office to complete a study reviewing how federal agencies address barriers to participation in federally-funded cancer clinical trials by individuals from underrepresented populations and provide recommendations for addressing such barriers.
Although Mrs. Lacks ultimately passed away on October 4, 1951, at the age of 31, her cells continue to impact the world. The Lack family has been recognized! On October 6, 2018, John Hopkins University announced plans to name a research building in honor of Lacks Family. In 2014, Lacks was inducted into the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame. In 2011, Morgan State University in Baltimore granted Lacks a posthumous honorary doctorate in public service.
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