The poor farmer who had worked on tobacco was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Eight months later, on October 4, the woman, the mother of five children, 31, was born in Virginia after receiving severe treatment at the same clinic.

But before I started the treatment, they did a biopsy. And when Dr. George Otto Gey studied these cancer cells, he observed that they looked amazing: they were immortal. Since then, HeLa cells, which have been acquired since the beginning of the woman's name and last name, have been reproduced continuously, making it difficult to calculate their number, but according to experts, between 20 and 50 tons of HeLa cells have been produced. Over 70,000 research studies have yielded excellent results in cell biology, vaccines, cancer procedures, fertilization, etc.

Henrietta's cells are a treasure trove for medicine, and they've also served to fill the pockets of the owners of thousands of patents. But they have also revealed questionable ethical behaviors. Although Johns Hopkins Hospital stated that it was the usual procedure of the time, no one told Henrietta Lacks that they would keep their cells and, of course, they did not ask for permission to investigate them. He died without knowing anything about what those cells brought and they didn't even tell his relatives for a long time.

In 1973, HeLa cells were spread in labs around the world, and they also traveled to space, where their children were informed of immortal cells. That's why they decided to give information to the family, because they wanted to know if the cells of the descendants of Henrietta Lacks also had the same characteristics and needed samples. Although they had no positive results and no longer listened to them, several family members tried to gather more information or to collect a piece of huge profits.

Sequenced the entire HeLa cell genome in March 2013, both projects were about to publish this data. As usual, they did not communicate anything to the Lacks family. But for once, Henrietta's grandchildren managed to paralyze the publications. After four months of negotiations with the US National Institute of Health, an agreement was reached: They wouldn't get the money, but for the first time, they could participate in decisions about grandmother's cells. They asked them for permission to publish the research results and answered yes.