The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks 

The Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education (CU CIPE) is thrilled to present the One Book One Campus selection for this academic year—

This year’s selection was student generated and is supported by the IPE student representatives and faculty across health profession programs, and by our Anschutz Campus organization partners. We are excited to announce that this year’s book is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, an excellent and powerful book by Rebecca Skloot. Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. 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. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons—as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Building upon past OBOC selections and the IPE introductory theme which we launched last year, this book aligns with both DEIJ and One Health.