HeLa Cell Timeline

  • HeLa cells sample are extracted

    Dr. George Grey takes samples of HeLa cells from Henrietta's corpse after her death.
  • HeLa Factory

    First HeLa factory opens to grow trillions of HeLa cells a week. Main reason for the factory was to help stop polio.
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    HeLa Cells Timeline

  • First scientific advances

    Scientists used HeLa cells to develop a method of freezing cells without changing them, advancing researching strategies.
  • First Cloned Cells

    Scientists were able to clone thousands of HeLa cells, the first cells to ever be cloned.
  • HeLa in cosmetics

    Cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies in the US and Europe begin using HeLa cells to test if new products and drugs caused cellular damage instead of laboratory animals.
  • More Experiments from Dr. Gey

    Dr. Gey uses HeLa cells to study hemorrhagic fever per the request of the US government. He also tests rats with the cells to see if they'd cause cancer.
  • Cancer outbreak experiment

    Dr. Southham injected patients with HeLa cells. Patients would then developed nodules in the area of where injected, in some patients it would spread else where. Southhams experiment increased the patients immunity to cancer (1954-56)
  • HeLa cells in space

    HeLa cells were sent to orbit in the second satellite ever to study the effects if space travel, nutritional needs of cells, and how cells respond to zero gravity
  • First Animal Hybrid Cells

    British scientists Henry Harris and John Watkins fused HeLa cells with mouse cells, making it possible to study what genes do and how they work
  • HIV Vaccine

    German virologist uncovered how Henrietta's cancer started and why her cells never died which was all due to HIV-18. The discovery had led to the HPV vaccine
  • FISH

    Christoph Lengauer developed fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), using HeLa cells, to uncover detailed information on a persons DNA by painting chromosomes