Henrietta Lacks was a young African American mother from a poor family in Clover, Virginia. 

She and her husband lived in Baltimore, Maryland for ten years with their Five children before she realized something was wrong. 

In 1951, Henrietta and her husband visited a well-known hospital due to vaginal bleeding.

They were very concerned and saw a gynecologist named Dr. Howard Jones. 

John Hopkins Hospital 

With the evaluation from Dr. Jones, Henrietta discovered that she had a large cervical tumor.

She immediately began treatments with the hope of curing the cervical cancer and returning to her normal life.

Unbeknownst to henrietta and Her husband, Dr. Jones sent a sample of Henriettas cancer cells to a lab to be examined and experimented with by a prominent cancer and virus researcher, Dr. George Gey. 

Dr. Gey quickly learned that Henriettas cells would reproduce and double every 20 to 24 hours.

Dr. Gey was amazed, as Henriettas cells were unlike any others that he had ever seen and studied. He quickly knew that her cells were special and would make a lasting difference in the world.

"In honor of Mrs. Henrietta Lacks, they will be called, HeLa cells."

A few months after her first visit with Dr. Jones, Henrietta passed away at the age of 31. 

However, the HeLa cell line continued to impact the world.

HeLa cells have been helpful to many scientists since they were discovered.

They are used to study toxins, drugs, hormones and viruses, and the effects that they have on cancer cells. 

HeLa cells have been used to test the effects of radiation and poisons, study the human genome, and learn more about how viruses work. 

HeLa cells were the first human cells that ever survived and thrived outside of the human body. 

Amazingly, since HeLa cells are cancer cells, they have the ability to replicate daily, just like Dr. Gey discovered. Because of the replication process, the original HeLa cell line still lives on today.

For over 70 years since Henrietta Lacks cells were discovered, the HeLa cell line has been used in more than 100,000 scientific publications discussing cancer, cell biology, genetics, and infectious diseases. 

Henrietta Lacks has coined the title, "Mother of Modern Medicine." 

Her cells have been admired for decades, as they still allow studies and experiments to flourish in the science community. 

While HeLa cells have been wildly successful in the process of developing medicines for diseases such as polio, Parkinson disease, and leukemia, there was a major problem that the medical community would soon face....