Henrietta Lacks, American medical patient (born 1920)

Henrietta Lacks

African-American woman (1920–1951), source of HeLa immortal cell line

Henrietta Lacks was an African-American woman whose cancer cells are the source of the HeLa cell line, the first immortalized human cell line and one of the most important cell lines in medical research. An immortalized cell line reproduces indefinitely under specific…