Thank you HeLa

I wanted to take this chance to give a sincere thank you to Henrietta Lacks (and her family) for her cells (HeLa) that I have started working with in my lab.  I've used all sorts of other cell lines before, some cancerous, some not, but I've never used a cell line that was covered in such controversy and shame and derived from a patient without consent (and that was SO cancerous, practically nothing can harm them).  It is no wonder she died such a painful death...these cells are insane! They DON'T die! 

Henrietta Lacks, I wish there was more I could do for you and your family, but nonetheless, thank you for this opportunity! They will hopefully serve me well on my project. 

Check out this post I wrote a while back about her and the book ("The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot) that has been written about her life.

The elongated looking cells are the ones that have adhered to the dish and are growing.