The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks • Book

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks ISBN: 9781400052189 | The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is the December 2025 book club assignment for the mixed titles group.  From the Publisher: Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells--taken without her knowledge in 1951--became one of the most important tools in medicine, bought and sold by the billions, with devastating effects on her family.  The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more t