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Henrietta's cells are collected during her treatment
This was the start to the many uses of HeLa. It was collected and placed in test tubes with chicken blood clots to ensure their survival. It was one of the first groups of cells to continue reproducing outside of the body. -
George Gey informed the world of HeLa cells and began selling them to anyone that asked.
Gey, in order to share the wealth of Henrietta's cells, created a way to ship the cells all over the country. he sent them through planes tucked in the shirt pockets of the crew. Cell culture wasn't as widely accepted as it had once been, so people were skeptical. But, many doctors jumped at the chance at being able to research with an unlimited supply of cells. -
The NFIP and Gey infected HeLa with the polio virus, finding it was the perfect cell culture to find a cure with.
The polio epidemic hit the country very hard. In order to find a cure, they needed cells to test how polio affected cells. After seeing the success of HeLA, they decided the next step was to find a way to mass-produce them. -
The NFIP builds a HeLa Distribution Center at Tuskegee Institute to mass-produce HeLa cells.
Gey could no longer sustain the need for HeLa, so the idea for a production plant began. The factory employed many and grew 6 trillion cells a week, all starting from one bottle. After the creation of the plant, any doctor in the world could have HeLa cells, transforming the way research could be done. -
HeLa cells were injected with many types of viruses.
Scientists began injecting HeLa with herpes, measles, mumps, fowl pox, equine encephalitis, and many other diseases. This allowed them to study what each virus did to the cell with hopes of finding ways to stop or reverse the effects. -
A new way of freezing cells was discovered.
After freezing the cells, they could then be transported without having to provide food for them. It also was similar to pressing a "pause button" so cells could be stored for long periods of time. HeLa was able to help revolutionize the way cells were delivered because there was a never ending supply and if they died, there were millions more to take their place. -
HeLa is cloned.
Scientists realized the only way to regulate HeLa cells in the scientific community was to clone the few cells they started with. This made sure there were no genetic mutations and that scientists could harness specific traits from specific cells. HeLa allowed for cloning, making it easier to grow them and helped scientists study genetic defects even more. -
Southam injects patients with HeLa cancerous cells.
His goal was to see if cancer could be passed on. But, he did not inform the patients of what he was doing, making what he did highly immoral. However, Southam was unable to conclude his research when his license was revoked. HeLa, while they did not give anyone cancer, continued to produce even inside the body of another person. -
HeLa is sent in space.
Along with the first humans in space, HeLa was sent up to study how zero gravity affects cancerous cells. They also wanted to see how quickly cell death occurred outside of the atmosphere. -
HeLa is mixed with mouse cells.
The first animal-human hybrid scared many, but in reality, it was to study how genes worked and what each chromosome did. They also mixed it with chicken cells and saw HeLa was able to "turn on" the reproduction that had been turned off inside the cell. After this, they were able to turn on and off certain chromosomes to see what each controlled, helping further the field of genetics. -
Dr. Gartler reveals the possibility of HeLa contamination.
This revelation showed that not only was HeLa expanding rapidly, but that it was also expanding across the laboratories. he believed that many of the other cell lines they were able to grow had been mixed with HeLa and were therefore contaminated. This also disproved the theory that normal cells could randomly become cancerous; they were probably just HeLa.