The Legacy of Henrietta Lacks
In 1951, a young mother of five named Henrietta Lacks sought treatment at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Doctors diagnosed her with cervical cancer, and during the course of her treatment discovered something remarkable about her cancer cells collected during routine biopsies—where cells from other patients would die, Mrs. Lacks’ cells doubled every 20 to 24 hours.
Though her treatment was unsuccessful and Mrs. Lacks died in October 1951, her cells—nicknamed “HeLa” cells, from the first two letters of her first and last names—continue to have an impact on the world. They 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, to study the human genome, and played a crucial role in the development of the polio and COVID-19 vaccines.
