"HeLa: The Untold Story of Henrietta Lacks' Remarkable Cells"

Henrietta Lacks was an African-American woman diagnosed with an aggressive form of cervical cancer in 1951 at the age of 31. She was treated at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. During her treatment, samples of her tumor cells were taken without her knowledge or consent.

It's common for cell samples to be taken from patients for medical purposes, but what was done with Henrietta's cells was groundbreaking. Her cells, known as HeLa cells, proved to be remarkably resistant to death and rapidly dividing. These cells became the first human cells to successfully survive and grow outside the host's body.

HeLa cells became incredibly important for medical research, used in the development of vaccines, cancer research, drug testing, and many other areas of medicine. However, Henrietta Lacks knew nothing about the use of her cells, and her family only learned about it many years later.

After HeLa became a global scientific sensation in the early 1970s, Henrietta Lacks' family found out about the use of her cells. This raised ethical questions about patient rights in medical research. Despite her significant contribution to medical science, Henrietta Lacks did not receive recognition for her incredible contribution until her story became known to the public.