Henrietta Lacks Thesis

Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. Henrietta was a poor southern tobacco farmer who was emitted to the hospital and had her cells taken without her knowledge. Her cells became the most important tools in medicine. HeLa were the first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, and are still alive today. Due to research they say that if you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons—as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells helped develop the polio vaccine, uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bombs effects, helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning and gene mapping, and have