HeLa cell

or He·la cell, he·la cell

[ hel-uh ]

noun

, Biology.

1. a vigorous strain of laboratory-cultured cells descended from a human cervical cancer, used widely in research.

Word History and Origins

Origin of HeLa cell¹

After He(nrietta) La(cks) , a patient at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, from whom the tissue was taken in 1951 prior to her death