Henrietta Lacks and Her Miraculous HeLa Cells

This is the story behind Henrietta Lacks and her miraculous HeLa cells. Henrietta Lacks was born in Roanoke, Virginia on August 1, 1920. Henrietta's mother, Eliza, died while she was giving birth to her 10th child in 1924, and the children were divided up between cousins, aunts and uncles, and other relatives. Henrietta went to live with her grandfather in a 4 room shack in Clover, Virginia when she was 4 years old. Henrietta's cousin, David Lacks was already living with their grandfather when Henrietta arrived. They shared a room because of lack of space, and when Henrietta was 14, she gave birth to their oldest child, Lawrence. At age 18, Henrietta had a daughter named Lucille, who was disabled. No one knew what was wrong with her, only that she was called "simple." David and Henrietta were married 2 years later.

A few months after they were married, David moved to Turner Station, a small town outside of Baltimore, where he found a job working in a ship yard. Henrietta and her 2 young children followed after he saved enough money for a place for them to live. For the first time in her life she boarded a train and left the home she had known since she was four years old. Henrietta had 3 more children, and soon after she had her youngest child, she noticed a small lump on her cervix. She went to John's Hopkins Hospital for tests, and was diagnosed with cervical cancer. The following week she found out that it was malignant.

When Henrietta went back to the hospital for treatment her doctor (Dr. George Gey) took 2 cell samples, one of the malignant cancer, the other of the normal cells without Henrietta's knowledge or permission. He took them to the lab and had his assistant, Mary Kubicek, put them in an incubator. She labeled them HeLa and thought that they, like all the rest, would not survive. She went in the next morning to find them growing. Henrietta's cells were the only cells in the lab that multiplied. Each time she separated the cells and moved some to a new incubator, they grew even more. Before long the doctor was selling them to scientists all across the globe to be used for research. Henrietta Lacks cells have been used ever since helping find cures for many diseases. This research has played a vital role in the development of the polio vaccine, vitro infertilization, and cloning; and also drugs for Parkinson's, leukemia, hemophilia, influenza, herpes and other diseases. Five Nobel prizes have been awarded for research using the HeLa cells since 2001.

Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer on October 4, 1951, when she was 31 years old. She is buried in a small unmarked grave in Clover, Virginia. Tumors had spread to nearly every organ in her body. Her husband and children didn't find out about the HeLa cells until 25 years later.