74 years ago, Turner Station resident Henrietta Lacks died at the age of 31 while undergoing treatment for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Without the express permission of Lacks or her surviving family, Dr. George Gey, a cancer researcher at Johns Hopkins, studied a culture of Lacks’ cells, which were taken during a biopsy. What he found was unlike any cell he had ever come across in his research: When other people’s cells died, Lacks’ cells doubled.
Dubbed the “HeLa cell,” Lacks’ immortal cell line went on to be used in a host of biotechnical breakthroughs, including the creation of the Polio vaccine, cervical cancer research and the development of the COVID-19 vaccination…