HeLa Cells Are Discovered
Then came along Henrietta. Once Dr. Gey took samples of Henrietta’s cells and discovered what they were capable of, he then started to reproduce the cell line in mass amounts in order to sell his discovery around the world. Labeled as the “HeLa” cell and never disclosing the person behind the cell line, Dr. Gey began to tell his story across the country of the first immortal cell line. HeLa cells made the possibilities of medicinal and scientific research endless. They provided doctors the abilities to run tests, and to make mistakes, and then run the same test again because the HeLa cells never ran out. They were constantly reproducing and making more. Today, even though other immortal cell lines have been discovered, HeLa cells are still the standard in labs all around the world. They have been apart of the so many discoveries it would be impossible to name them all, but some of them are the Polio vaccine, In Vitro fertilization, research into AIDS, gene mapping, the effects of radiation and toxic substances.