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In 1951, doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore took cancer cells from Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman being treated for cervical cancer, without her knowledge or consent. Her cells, later called HeLa, were the first human cells able to keep multiplying in a laboratory, and are still used in research worldwide.

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The HeLa cell line, named from the first letters of her first and last names, was used in the 1950s to test the polio vaccine and has since supported research into cancer, HIV, the human papillomavirus that causes most cervical cancers, and gene mapping. Lacks, a mother of five, died in October 1951, aged 31. Her family learned only in 1973, when researchers asked them for blood samples, that her cells had been grown and shared with laboratories around the world. Rebecca Skloot's 2010 book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks brought the story to a wide audience. In 2013 the US National Institutes of Health agreed with the family on controlled access to HeLa genome data, and in 2023 her estate settled a lawsuit with the company Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Türkçe oku
1951'de ABD'deki Johns Hopkins Hastanesi'nde rahim ağzı kanseri tedavisi gören Siyahi Amerikalı Henrietta Lacks'ten, haberi ve izni olmadan kanser hücresi alındı. HeLa adı verilen bu hücreler laboratuvarda durmadan çoğalabilen ilk insan hücreleri oldu ve bugün hâlâ dünyanın her yerinde araştırmalarda kullanılıyor.

HeLa hücre hattı, adını onun adının ve soyadının ilk harflerinden alır. 1950'lerde çocuk felci aşısının denenmesinde kullanıldı; o günden bu yana kanser, HIV, rahim ağzı kanserlerinin çoğuna yol açan insan papilloma virüsü (HPV) ve gen haritalama araştırmalarına katkı sağladı. Beş çocuk annesi Lacks, Ekim 1951'de 31 yaşında hayatını kaybetti. Ailesi, hücrelerinin çoğaltılıp dünyanın dört bir yanındaki laboratuvarlara dağıtıldığını ancak 1973'te, araştırmacılar kendilerinden kan örneği istediğinde öğrendi. Rebecca Skloot'un 2010'da yayımlanan The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Henrietta Lacks'in Ölümsüz Hayatı) adlı kitabı, hikâyeyi geniş kitlelere duyurdu. 2013'te ABD Ulusal Sağlık Enstitüleri (NIH), HeLa genom verilerine erişimin denetimli olması konusunda aileyle anlaştı; 2023'te de Lacks'in mirasçıları Thermo Fisher Scientific şirketine açtıkları davada uzlaşmaya vardı.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: HeLa
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