Portal:Medicine/Selected article/45, 2007



Henrietta Lacks (August 18, 1920 – October 4, 1951) was the involuntary donor of cells from her cancerous tumor, which were cultured by George Otto Gey to create an immortal cell line for medical research. This is now known as the HeLa cell line.

She was born as Henrietta Pleasant on August 18, 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia to Eliza (1886–1924) and John Randall Pleasant I (1881–1969). Eliza died giving birth to her tenth child in 1924. Sometime after his wife's death, John Pleasant took the children back to where their relatives on their mother's side lived, and where they were raised. In 1929, a 48 year old John, still living in Roanoke at 12th Street Southwest, married a 13-year-old girl named Lillian. John worked as a brakeman on the railroad.

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