Born in Roanoke in 1920, Henrietta Lacks was the unwitting source of the first immortalized human cell line, taken from her biopsied tumor during treatment from cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1951. The HeLa cell line remains one of the most important cell lines in medical research and reproduces indefinitely under specific conditions, contributing to some of the most impactful medical breakthroughs in the past several decades. Learn her story as told by Roanoke City Council member Trish White-Boyd. #blackhistory #immortallife #medicalresearch