The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks
Margaret Gey and Minnie, a lab technician, in the Gey lab at Hopkins, circa 1951. COUR-
TESY OF MARY KUBICEK
The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks
Mary Kubicek, the technician in the Gey lab who processed Henrietta’s tumor sample and
grew her cells in culture. COURTESY OF MARY KUBICEK
The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks
Four technicians at the Tuskegee Institute’s HeLa mass production center inspecting
HeLa cells before shipping them. © MARCH OF DIMES FOUNDATION
a. One HeLa cell dividing into two. COURTESY OF PAUL D. ANDREWS
b. These HeLa cells were stained with special dyes that highlight specific parts of each cell.
Here, the DNA in the nucleus is yellow, the actinfilaments are light blue, and the mitochon-
dria—the cell’s power generators—are pink. © OMAR QUINTERO
c. These HeLa cells were stained with fluorescent dye and photographed under a confocal
microscope. COURTESY OF TOM DEERINCK
The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks
Deborah at about thirteen, the age when she was fending off her cousin Galen.