Today, we are closing out Women's History Month with the story of Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta died of cervical cancer in 1951 - but her cells have lived on. They divide and duplicate at such a rate that if you could gather all the HeLa cells in one spot they could weigh 50 tons. They have been used in creating vaccines, researching cancer, and mapping the human genome. All the while, Henrietta's family didn't know that this was happening and would get asked for DNA samples and blood tests every so often.
We recommend learning more by reading "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot.
Sources:
https://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks/dp/1400052181
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/the-double-edged-helix-231322/
https://www.elle.com/life-love/a39586444/how-serena-williams-saved-her-own-life/
https://research.unc.edu/human-research-ethics/resources/ccm3_019064/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3440234/
https://www.atcc.org/products/ccl-2
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