The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Time: 7:00 p.m.

Place: The Wistar Institute, 36th & Spruce Streets

Reading and book signing.

Event is free, but space is limited and registration is required.

RSVP by February 11.

About the Book: Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells taken without her knowledge became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the effects of the atom bomb; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.

Rebecca Skloot is an award-winning writer, and a contributing editor at Popular Science magazine. She has worked as a correspondent for NPR’s RadioLab and PBS’s Nova ScienceNOW, and her writing appears in The New York Times Magazine, O: The Oprah Magazine, Discover, Columbia Journalism Review, Prevention, and many others. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, her first book, will be released on February 9, 2010.