The family of Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman whose cervical cancer cells obtained during a tumor biopsy at
In a statement Tuesday, which would have been Lack’s 103rd birthday, attorneys Crump and Chris Seeger announced that "members of the family of Henrietta Lacks and Thermo Fisher have agreed to settle the litigation filed by Henrietta Lacks’ Estate, in U.S. District Court in Baltimore." While most cell samples died shortly after being removed from the body, her cells survived and thrived in laboratories. They became known as the first immortalized human cell line because scientists could cultivate them indefinitely, meaning researchers anywhere could reproduce studies using identical cells.