The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

  • Henrietta's tissue samples are first removed

    After going to the hospital for treatment for her rapidly growing cancer, doctors at John Hopkins took Henrietta's cells without her consent which are the cells that then went on to help advance science drastically
  • Henrietta Lacks dies of Cervical Cancer

    Not long after her cells are taken Henrietta dies of a bad case of cervical cancer
  • The Polio Vaccine is Developed

    HeLa cells are are used to help develop the polio vaccine. This is the first large medical breakthrough HeLa cells helped with
  • The HeLa Factory Opens

    The HeLa factory worked with supplying cells to different labs as a none profit organization but soon they would start being sold fro profit
  • HeLa Cells are cloned

    The cloning of Henrietta's cells led to breakthroughs in Stem cell isolation and animal cloning
  • Chester Southam Begins conducting experiments

    Southam uses the Cells he took without patient consent to conduct experiments to see if HeLa cells could cause cancer
  • The first animal-human hybrid cells are created

    HeLa cells are first fused together with mouse cells making them the first Human/animal hybrid cells this process is called Somatic cell fusion
  • The Hela Bomb is dropped

    Stanley Gartler confirms that HeLa cells have contaminated many cell lines. This confirmation is now known as Gartler dropping the HeLa Bomb and it set back many years of medical research regarding HeLa cells.
  • HeLa cells help further Tuberculosis research

    HeLa cells were used in Tuberculosis research and helped begin advances in cures for the disease
  • More sample cells are taken from Henrietta's children

    Right after Henrietta's family was informed about her cells being used in science around the world, scientists took more cells from her children to help further research even more, again without informed consent
  • HeLa Cells help Herpes treatment

    HeLa cells helped lead to the discovery that a three injection treatment could reduce activity of the virus in the body.
  • Hela Cells help Aids treatment

    HeLa cells helped lead to the medical breakthrough concerning aids. They helped develop a probe that can detect the enzymes produced when HIV cells are present
  • HeLa cells help with cancer research

    HeLa cells helped discover that HPV can lead to cervical cancer, knowing this helped scientist develop one of the first anti cancer vaccines.