The Cell that Changed Science

Where did human cell research begin?
In 1951, a 31-year-old woman lay near death from cervical cancer when a Johns Hopkins research doctor made a stunning discovery while observing a pea-sized tumor biopsy section that had been surgically removed from her body, a discovery that would make her "immortal."

For the first time in scientific practice, human cells were living outside the body in a glass tube. The cells of this Baltimore mother of five could be tested, treated, and studied, opening up whole avenues of biological research.

Stored under the right conditions, they would never die. To this day, the cells remain vigorous in labs all over the world. Back in the 1950s, they were used to test polio vaccines. Other uses helped create the fields of molecular biology and virology.

 The Baltimore woman was Henrietta Lacks. In 1951, the prevailing custom regarding patient confidentiality was not to release the name of the patient; only the acronym HeLa was used. Today, nearly 46 years after the death of Henrietta Lacks, her husband and four children are seeking answers and some recognition for the woman who did so much for medical science.

Henrietta Lacks was born in 1920 in Clover, Virginia, 30 miles from the North Carolina border. Her ancestors were slaves who worked in the tobacco fields. Her father was a railroad brakeman. In 1943 she moved near Baltimore to the segregated community of Turners Station, where she joined her husband, David, who had come to work a few months earlier at the Sparrows Point shipyard. His starting salary was 80 ½ cents an hour. He continued to work for Bethlehem Steel until his retirement about 20 years ago. She raised her five children there until the disease that eventually claimed her life made her seek medical treatment at Johns Hopkins. What became a major medical discovery had its origins in a routine biopsy taken sometime after her initial trip from Turners Station to Johns Hopkins Hospital on February 1, 1951.

On March 19, 1998, the British Broadcasting Corporation aired a one-hour documentary, "The Way of All Flesh," about Henrietta Lack. Since Henrietta's death, her family has remained largely intact. Her husband is 81 years-old and the four surviving children Deborah, David Jr., Lawrence, and Zakariyya all live in Baltimore and remain close to their father, who never remarried.
 

Additional Information
www.bbc.co.uk search results
What's left of Henrietta Lacks? by Anne Enright

This Baltimore History Special:
Henrietta Lacks & the Cell that Changed Science is brought to you by Robert O. Black, teacher at Harbor City High School and TeachNet Web Mentor.