Henrietta Lacks
Sign in to saveAmerican woman whose cancer cells are the source of the HeLa cell line (1920–1951)
Key facts
- Born
- Loretta Pleasant , ( 1920-08-01 ) August 1, 1920, Roanoke , Virginia, U.S.
- Died
- October 4, 1951 (1951-10-04) (aged 31), Baltimore , Maryland, U.S.
- Cause of death
- Cervical cancer
- Monuments
- Henrietta Lacks Health and Bioscience High School ; historical marker at Clover , Virginia
- Occupations
- Housewife tobacco farmer
- Height
- approximately</span>"}]]}'>approx. 5 ft (150 cm)
- Spouse
- David Lacks ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1941 )
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Henrietta
- Gender
- female
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Roanoke
- Place of death
- Baltimore
- Occupation
- homemaker
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Native language
- English language
- Image
- Henrietta Lacks statue head 02.jpg
Show 9 more facts
- cause of death
- Povilla
- manner of death
- natural causes
- name in native language
- Henrietta Lacks
- date of birth
- 1920-08-01
- date of death
- 1951-10-04
- Commons category
- Henrietta Lacks
- birth name
- Loretta Pleasant
- on focus list of Wikimedia project
- WikiProject COVID-19
- place of burial
- Clover
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
Henrietta Lacks (née Loretta Pleasant; August 1, 1920 – October 4, 1951) was an African-American woman whose cancer cells are the source of the HeLa cell line, the first immortalized human cell line and one of the most important cell lines in medical research. An immortalized cell line reproduces indefinitely under specific conditions, and the HeLa cell line continues to be a source of invaluable medical data and research to the present day.
Lacks was the unwitting source of these cells from a tumor biopsied during her treatment for cervical cancer at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1951. These cells were then cultured by George Otto Gey, who created the cell line known as HeLa, which is still used for medical research. As was then the practice, no consent was required to culture the cells obtained from Lacks's treatment. Neither she nor her family were compensated for the extraction or use of the HeLa cells.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Henrietta Lacks” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.