The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks

by Rebecca Skloot

This phenomenal book was chosen for the University of Wisconsin's Big Read 2010. Henrietta Lacks was a poor black woman who died in the early 1950's of cervical cancer. However, there is a part of her that is still alive today. Doctors at Johns Hopkins took a sample of her tumor. Within 24 hours, they discovered that her cells were regenerating. The cells have never stopped doing so. HeLa cells have been studied regarding many illnesses over the years, and without them, we would not have a cure for polio, or many other diseases that now seem like a thing of the past.
The story becomes more intriguing when you realize that the Lacks family had no idea of Henrietta's significance to the medical world for over twenty years.