This week we are talking about Henrietta Lacks, a young black woman born in the 1920’s and her cells that would change the face of modern medicine. Scientists would call Henrietta's cells HeLa cells.

The First HeLa cells were removed from her cervix in 1951 at Johns Hopkins hospital only a few months before her death caused by cervical cancer. Henrietta was 31 when she died. These cells however would live on long after their owners death.

The HeLa cells would become one of the most medically significant breakthroughs in science over the next half a century. They were used to help cure polio, Sent into space to test what happened to human cells in zero gravity, testing chemo therapy, Made Genetic Screening possible, Advanced In vitro fertilization research Advancing cloning research(yuck).

Basically anything that needs to be tested for human use has spent some time working with HeLa. it has become the defacto research workhorse. Demand for HeLa cells grew so large that factories had to be built just to propagate her cells.

Today there are trillions of descendants of those original cells taken from Henrietta in labs all over the world. However Henrietta died just months after the first sample was taken. That sample was taken without her explicit consent and the family didn't even learn that scientists were using her cells until 20 years later and even after a multi million dollar industry was created around the Hela Cells, the family didn't receive a dime until 2023.

We also talk about a woman named Mary Papanicolaou who voluntarily received a Pap Smear every day for 21 years! Wild.

Hope you enjoy!

Sources:

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot (2010)

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