-
Lack's Cells are Taken
During Henrietta's treatment for her cervical cancer, her doctors took pieces of the tissue from her cervix. -
Henrietta Dies
-
Period: to
HeLa Factory
In late 1951, there was a HeLa factory being built to help the manufacturing of the cells and reproducing them at a higher rate for research involving the polio vaccine. -
Polio Vaccine
University of Pittsburgh's Jonas Salk announces that he has finally developed the polio vaccine. The testing labs were supplied with HeLa to verify if the vaccine was truly effective and was proven to be effective. -
Culturing Cells and Shipment
Scientist Gey was the first scientist to successfully culture cells. Not only that, but cervical cells are one of the hardest to culture. He began to ship the cells to other laps for scientists to use in their own research. This would lead to many things including vaccines and the modern understanding of cells. -
Understanding Cells
HeLa helped scientists understand cells under a new field of study known as Human Genetics. A scientist spilled a substance on HeLa cells and it revealed chromosomes and the wiring behind genes. This helped scientists further understand DNA and how cells work. They used the cells for testing steroids, hormones, vitamins, and many other things. -
Hemorrhagic Fever
Gey, the original scientist to culture HeLa, took her cells out to the Far East as a request from the American government. Many soldiers were dying from Hemorrhagic Fever. -
HPV
German virologist Harald zur Hausen conducted research to try to understand why HeLa acted the way it did and how it was immortal. Doing this he discovered a new strain of HPV known as HPV-18. His research using the HeLa cells discovered how HPV causes cancer and led to the HPV vaccine we now have today.