A young black women in 1954 had cervix cancer, they removed part of the tumor, but the cells did something amazing. The cells from Henrietta's tumor were given to researcher George Gey, who discovered that the cells did something they'd never seen before: They could be kept alive and grow.Most cells would only survive for a few days. Scientists spent more time trying to keep the cells alive than performing actual research on the cells. Some cells in Lacks's tissue sample behaved differently than others. George Gey was able to isolate one specific cell, multiply it, and start a cell line. Gey named the sample "HeLa", after the initial letters of Henrietta Lacks' name, to protect her identity.
As the first human cells that could be grown in a lab were "immortal" they did not die after a few cell divisions. they could then be used for conducting many experiments. This represented an enormous boon to medical and biological research. From 1955 until the present this woman's cancer cells has helped science and her cells have been sold to researchers around the world. It was wasn't until a science writer wanted to know more about these cells, that she unearthed the truth. The family was never been compensated and sadly probably never will be. This amazing story it reads like a mystery. The science writer did an amazing job describing her research and she talked to many of Henrietta's family members.