Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as
HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her
knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for
developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization,
and more. Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she
remains virtually unknown, and her family can’t afford health insurance.
-From About The Immortal Life of Henrietta
Lacks on RebeccaSkloot.com
This summer, all first
year students at Marist College were asked to read The Immortal Life of
Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot.
Librarian Nancy Lewis has created a Special Topics Pathfinder, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, as a resource for students and Faculty
working with the common reading. This pathfinder draws together resources
related to the story and the science of the HeLa cells, maps of locations in the
book, as well as resources related to researching and writing about a story. A number of multimedia resources, including a video of HeLa cells dividing are presented.
While this Pathfinder will certainly be of use to the First Year Seminars, we
hope that other classes may find these resources of use and that you will direct your students
to the pathfinder as well.
We hope you will also
stop by and see the Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks Display in the display
case on the second floor of the Library.
