Henrietta Lacks

Henrietta Lacks was an American woman whose cervical cancer cells were used to create the HeLa cell line, the first widely known immortal human cell line.

Henrietta Lacks was an American woman whose cervical cancer cells were used to create the HeLa cell line, the first widely known immortal human cell line. Her cells became central to major advances in biomedical research, while her case also became a landmark example in debates over consent, ethics, and the use of human tissue in research. Lacks died at age 31 in Baltimore in 1951.

Early life

Henrietta Lacks was born Loretta Pleasant in Roanoke, Virginia, and later lived in rural Virginia before moving with family near Baltimore. She was an African-American tobacco farmer and mother of five.

HeLa cells

During treatment for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1951, cells from Lacks’s tumour were cultured and became the HeLa cell line. The line proved unusually robust and is described as the first immortal human cell line, becoming one of the most important tools in biomedical research.

Scientific impact

HeLa cells have been used in research on cancer, viruses, genetics, vaccines, and many other areas of medicine. They contributed to advances including the polio vaccine, cancer research, virology, and genetics, and remain widely used in laboratories.

Ethics and legacy

Lacks’s case raised major questions about informed consent, ownership of human tissue, and the treatment of Black patients in medical research. Her cells were taken without her knowledge or consent, and her story has been the subject of books, documentaries, public memorials, and institutional recognition.