A line of tissue culture cells which originated from some human cervical cancer cells and which was established in 1951 by Gey, Coffman, and Kubicek. The line is named after the woman who donated the tumor, Henrietta Lacks, and is the first tissue culture made from human epithelial-like cells. The line is used to study life processes and the cultivation of viruses. (It is also interesting to note that the woman who donated the cells has since died, but that the line from her tumor lives on in scientific laboratories. In some respects, the establishment of these cells in a line is not unlike instant macroevolution from human to protozoan.)