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Henrietta LacksHenrietta Lacks, whose "immortal" continuously dividing cancer cells underpin numerous areas of research, was a Black mother of five in 1951. She suffered from cervical cancer and sought care at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, one of the only area hospitals treating African Americans at the time. But before she began the era's standard radium treatment, doctors cut out a dime-sized sample of her tumor and another of her healthy tissue while she was unconscious. Consent was not required for research sampling at the time, and a Hopkins researcher named George Gey was routinely sent cells extracted from any cervical cancer patients at the hospital. The prolific cells, now known to have been infected with human papillomavirus, were a research boon because they continuously divide, doubling roughly every 24 hours, whereas most human cells die within days in the lab. The cells, labeled "HeLa" for Henrietta Lacks, were widely distributed for research use in the decades that followed, including in multiple Nobel Prize-winning works, more than 100,000 published papers, and the polio and COVID-19 vaccines. Lacks died about eight months after her tissue samples were taken, but a 2010 book by journalist Rebecca Skloot illuminated her enormous contributions, led to global bioethics discussions, and spurred actions, including her family's lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies that utilized HeLa cells for their patents.Explore Henrietta Lacks

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It's been 75 years since doctors took Henrietta Lacks' cells without her consent or knowledge in 1951 and used them for research, creating an 'immortal' cell line that's still used today—but modern policies and legislation around patient consent remain complex. 1440 Originals See the trailer for the 2017 HBO movie 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks' starring Oprah Winfrey, who plays the daughter of the Black woman whose cancer cells were taken without her knowledge or permission, and now underpin numerous scientific discoveries. HBO Scientists now know that Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman whose 'immortal' cancer cells were nonconsensually sampled and used for research, had been infected with human papillomavirus, a group of pathogens responsible for most cervical cancers. The Conversation Read an excerpt from 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,' the story of the Black woman whose nonconsensually sampled cancerous cells underpin thousands of research papers and several Nobel Prize-winning works. NPR More than 100,000 scientific publications between 1953 and 2018 reported using HeLa cells—the cancerous cells nonconsensually taken from a Black woman named Henrietta Lacks in 1951. National Institutes of Health 60 years after seeing Henrietta Lacks as a patient, her doctor still remembered the unique cervical tumor that gave rise to the 'immortal' cell line now commonly used in biomedical research—it was purple, shiny, and soft—an appearance he said is very different from a typical tumor. Radiolab Novartis settled with the family of Henrietta Lacks in 2026 for an undisclosed sum after using Lacks' cancerous cells in numerous patents decades after Lacks' cancerous cells were taken without her knowledge or consent. Fierce Pharma 'Immortal' HeLa cells—cancerous cells widely used in biomedical research after they were nonconsensually taken from a Black woman named Henrietta Lacks—proliferate easily, causing millions of dollars of damage annually by contaminating lab cell cultures. McGill University Henrietta Lacks' tumor cells became the first recognized 'immortal' cell line about 75 years ago, but researchers are still investigating the specific mechanisms that enabled the cells to continuously grow and divide in the laboratory. TED-Ed The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman. BBC Global

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