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Yesterday we heard part 1 of my interview with science writer Rebecca Skloot about her best selling book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Today, we’ll hear part 2. Henrietta Lacks was a poor African American woman living in Maryland, who died of aggressive cervical cancer on October 4th 1951. She was only 31 years old and left behind a husband and five children. What neither she nor her family knew was that doctors discovered her cancer cells were able to grow and thrive in laboratory conditions – something no other cell line was able to do at that time. Unbeknownst to the Lacks family, Henrietta’s cells, called HeLa, launched a medical revolution, helping doctors do research on cancer, polio, and a host of other diseases. But the Lacks family, even after discovering what had happened to their mother’s cells 20 years after her death, remained impoverished. Little was known about Henrietta herself. Now, Rebecca Skloot’s new book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells the definitive story of who Henrietta Lacks was, how her cells were taken, and what her family has been through. Skloot spent ten years gathering the research, intimately getting to know members of the Lacks family, in particular Henrietta’s daughter Deborah, and attempting to put together the pieces of one of the most important untold stories of modern medicine. She has also set up a scholarship fund for the descendants of Henrietta Lacks. I spoke with Rebecca on Friday at her book reading at Vroman’s bookstore in Pasadena. Part 2 of the interview begins with a focus on Henrietta’s daughter.

Find out more at www.rebeccaskloot.com.