Today would have been Henrietta Lacks’ 103 birthday.

Ms. Lacks sounds familiar but you can’t quiet place her?

Henrietta Lacks was born in Roanoke, Va in 1902. In 1951 the beautiful mother of five was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Cells retrieved during a biopsy of her tumor were sent to Dr. George Gey and his tissue lab. Oddly other cancer patient cells were dying, but those of Ms. Lacks were doubling every 20 to 24 hours.

Her cancer cells are the source of the “HeLa” cell line (named for the first two letters of her first and last names), which is credited as one of the most important lines in medical research.

In my opinion, she’s also the premier gem in Johns Hopkins Hospital’s crown.

To quote hopkinsmedicine.org, “The HeLa cell line is used to study the effects of toxins, drugs, hormones and viruses on the growth of cancer cells without experimenting on humans. They have been used to test the effects of radiation and poisons, to study the human genome, to learn more about how viruses work, and played a crucial role in the development of the polio and COVID-19 vaccines.”

Today, on what would have been Henrietta Lacks’ 103 birthday, her family settled their law suit against Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Civil Rights attorney Ben Crump filed suit on behalf of Henrietta’s family, against the company, in 2021. The incredible medical breakthroughs that have emerged from research of this cell line are somewhat tarnished as the family was never notified the cells were being used. Or out there in the world.

Thanks to the research of Rebecca Skloot, author of “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” the family began to understand the massive impact these cells have had on medical breakthroughs from vaccines to invetro-fertilization.

Today the family and Thermo Fisher Scientific settled out of court. Johns Hopkins Hospital assumes no wrong doing.

Legal proceedings aside, cheers to you, Ms. Lacks. Thank you for your immensely important impact on the miracle of medicine. The sign says it best, “Henrietta Lacks, who in death, saved countless lives.”