The Hindu Business Line - With every cell of her being

In 1951, a scientist named George Gey is supposed to have whispered in the ear of a dying woman, “Your cells will make you immortal”. The woman was wracked by pain that the best analgesics couldn’t dull, but she smiled then, unaware that the word ‘immortal’ would be repeatedly associated with her — decades after her death.

Gey had spent nearly three decades trying to grow human cells in a petri dish, mostly to study and, potentially, cure cancer. Until the arrival of Lacks’ cells, though, he had only encountered many long years of failure and, maybe, marginal success. However, within days of growing Lacks’ cells (named ‘HeLa’, from the first two letters of her names), he realised that their numbers would consistently double every 24 hours.

He was looking at the first ‘immortal’ human cells