Henrietta Lacks

Henrietta Lacks (1920–1951) was an African American woman whose cervical cancer cells were collected without her consent. They became the source of HeLa, a cell line used widely in biomedical research.

HeLa: A cell line derived from Henrietta Lacks’s cervical cancer cells that can divide indefinitely in laboratory culture. The cell line made from Lacks’s tumor became one of the most widely used tools in biomedical research.
Johns Hopkins Hospital: A teaching hospital and medical research institution in Baltimore, Maryland. Lacks received treatment there, and her tumor sample was collected at the hospital.
Rebecca Skloot: An American science writer and journalist, author of the 2010 book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Skloot’s reporting brought Lacks’s life and family’s experiences to a wide audience.
Tissue rights: Legal and ethical questions about who may control, use, or profit from human biological materials. The use and commercial distribution of HeLa raised questions about control of donated or removed tissue.
Polio vaccine: A vaccine that protects against poliovirus, developed in inactivated and live-attenuated forms. HeLa cells helped Jonas Salk test whether his polio vaccine worked.
George Otto Gey: An American cell biologist who developed the HeLa cell line from Henrietta Lacks’s tumor cells. Gey’s laboratory cultured the cells that became HeLa.
Deborah Lacks: Henrietta Lacks’s daughter, who worked with Rebecca Skloot to investigate her mother’s life and legacy. Deborah’s search for information about her mother became a major thread in Skloot’s account.
Bioethics: The study of ethical questions arising in medicine, biology, and the life sciences. Lacks’s story is a widely discussed case in medical and research ethics.
Human papillomavirus: A group of viruses that infect skin and mucous membranes; some types cause cervical cancer. Research on cervical cancer cells, including HeLa, contributed to understanding the role of viruses in cancer.
Mary Kubicek: A laboratory assistant who cultured Henrietta Lacks’s tumor cells in George Gey’s laboratory. Kubicek’s successful culture of the cells established the first HeLa cultures.

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