About Henrietta Lacks

Rebecca Skloot’s book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” published in 2010, is the nonfiction account of a Southern black woman who died of cervical cancer in 1951. While she was being treated at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, a surgeon removed samples of her tumor without her knowledge. Unlike all other cell samples that had been taken from humans, Henrietta Lacks’ cell samples didn’t die off. They became the first immortal human cells ever grown in a laboratory.

By: John Lundy, Duluth News Tribune