HeLa: the historical injustice that shaped modern medicine

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By Beth Roberts

The immortal ‘HeLa’ cells have been used in over 70,000 biomedical studies and generated countless breakthroughs. But the tragic story of the woman from whom the cells were taken casts a shadow over seven decades of research.

Medical research spanning everything from influenza drugs to polio vaccines and COVID-19 treatments, to Parkinson’s disease and even the impact of zero gravity on human cells, all share a common thread - HeLa cells.¹