When Lacks’ cervical cancer cells were successfully grown in a petri dish in 1951, scientists now had a source of cost-effective and easy-to-use cells that expanded their ability to conduct research. Why HeLa cells matterīefore HeLa cells, scientists wanted a way to grow and study human cells in the lab to conduct studies that are impossible to do in a living person. This ability to survive through endless generations of cells is what makes them invaluable for scientists conducting experiments on human cells. Lacks’ cervical cancer cells, called “HeLa” after the first two letters of her first and last name, are immortal, continuing to divide when most cells would die. The family has not been previously been compensated. Lacks’ descendants had sued the company in 2021 for making billions of dollars off her cells. 1, 2023, over 70 years after doctors took Lacks’ cells without her consent or knowledge, her family reached a settlement with biotech company Thermo Fisher. As a cancer researcher who uses HeLa cells in my everyday work, even I sometimes find it hard to believe. In an amazing twist of fate, the aggressive cervical cancer tumor that killed Henrietta Lacks, a 31-year-old African American mother, became an essential tool that helped the biomedical field flourish in the 20th century. Cancer-causing viruses like HPV can cause cells to divide indefinitely and, in the case of Henrietta Lacks, become immortal.
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