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Hello, this is Six Minute English from BBC Learning English.
I'm Rob.
And I'm Georgina.
What do Vincent van Gogh and Galileo Galilee have in common, Georgina?
Their first name and last names both start with the same letter.
Well, that's true.
But another similarity is that their amazing contributions to art and science were only recognized after their death.
I know another person whose huge contribution to science went unrecognized during her lifetime, Rob.
But unlike van Gogh or Galileo,
you probably haven't heard of her.
She's a subject of this program.
Henrietta Lacks was a young black American mother who died of cancer in Baltimore in 1951.
Although she never consented to her tissues being used for medical research,
doctors at the time found her cells to have an extraordinary ability to replace themselves endlessly.
Named Hela cells after her initials, Henrietta Lacks tissue helped make possible all sorts of medical breakthroughs from the polio vaccine to cancer drugs to HIV and IVF treatments.
Born 100 years ago, in 1920, the great great granddaughter of slaves,
Henrietta and her cells continue to provide medical discoveries to this day.
Most recently, of course, in the race for a coronavirus vaccine.