Longest-lived human cells

Henrietta Lacks (USA) died from cancer on 4 October 1951 at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Cells from her cervical cancer were taken both before and after her death and became the first human cells to survive and divide outside the human body. Known as HeLa cells, the descendents of these tumour cells still survive and are used in medical research around the world in diverse areas including cancer research, polio vaccination, in vitro fertilisation and herpes treatments. More than 50 million tonnes of Henrietta’s cells have been manufactured and have been referred to in more than 60,000 research papers. Henrietta Lacks was buried in an unmarked grave to which a headstone was only added in 2010, donated by a doctor who had read a biography of Lacks.