hela cells News

When we think of genetic engineering, biotech industry, it is easy to assume it is something relatively recent as within the last 20 to 30 years. But in a 2010 best-seller, author Rebecca Skloot revealed that such engineering had been done earlier.

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but in the medical community, she is commonly known as HeLa. At 30, Lacks was diagnosed was cervical cancer and died months later, in 1951. Her cells, however, became (and still are) one of the most important medical tools.