Science
by Rebecca Skloot
Who was Henrietta Lacks?
Her cells, known as HeLa, grow in labs around the world. Rebecca Skloot first heard of them at 16, in a biology class. Her teacher knew the woman's name and that she was Black, and almost nothing else. Years later, Skloot set out to find the person behind the cells.
Hear a sample · read by Laura
In 1951 Henrietta, a 30-year-old mother of five from near Baltimore, was treated for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins, one of the few hospitals nearby that treated Black patients. During her treatment, a doctor took a small piece of her tumour for research. Nobody told her or asked her.
George Gey's lab at Hopkins had spent years trying to keep human cells alive, and they kept dying. Henrietta's kept dividing. Gey named them HeLa, after her first and last names, and gave them free to scientists who asked. Henrietta died that October, aged 31.
HeLa grew so easily that labs everywhere could work on the same cells. The Tuskegee Institute grew them in bulk for testing Jonas Salk's polio vaccine. Later they helped scientists map human genes and link a virus, HPV, to cervical cancer, research behind today's HPV vaccine.
For years, articles about HeLa gave her name wrongly, often as Helen Lane. Her family only learned of the cells in 1973, more than twenty years after her death. HeLa was being bought and sold, yet some of her children could not afford health insurance.
1951
In 1951, doctors at Johns Hopkins took cells from Henrietta Lacks without asking her.
HeLa
Her cells, called HeLa, were the first human cells that kept growing in a lab.
What they did
HeLa cells helped test the polio vaccine and led to many other medical advances.
The family
Her family didn't learn about the cells for more than twenty years.
Money
Companies made money from HeLa while her family often couldn't pay for health care.
A story from the book
Deborah Lacks was too young to remember her mother, and longed to know her. Skloot helped her search. At Johns Hopkins, a cancer researcher showed Deborah and her brother Zakariyya their mother's cells under a microscope and answered their questions. Deborah died in 2009, before the book came out.
Hot take · true or myth?
Stray HeLa cells contaminated many other scientists' cell cultures.
True. In 1966 the geneticist Stanley Gartler reported that many cell lines thought to be something else were really HeLa. The cells grew so strongly that a stray few could take over a culture.
One thing to try
This week, pick one medical advance that has helped you, such as a vaccine you've had, and read how it was tested. Look for the people who gave samples or took part in the trials, and whether they were asked. Skloot spent years asking the same of HeLa.
Knotd has the key ideas from 250+ non-fiction books, each in a few minutes, in plain words. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks comes with a Hot Take round to make it stick.
Get the whole book on KnotdOpen in the appWho was Henrietta Lacks? Her cells, known as HeLa, grow in labs around the world. Rebecca Skloot first heard of them at 16, in a biology class. Her teacher knew the woman's name and that she was Black, and almost nothing else. Years later, Skloot set out to find the person behind the cells.
Taken without asking; Cells that kept dividing; What HeLa made possible; The family finds out.
This week, pick one medical advance that has helped you, such as a vaccine you've had, and read how it was tested. Look for the people who gave samples or took part in the trials, and whether they were asked. Skloot spent years asking the same of HeLa.
Yes. Knotd has the key ideas from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks in a few minutes, in plain words, plus a Hot Take round to test them. It's one of 250+ non-fiction books in the app.
