1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Henrietta Lacks Congressional Gold Medal Act . 2. Findings Congress finds the following: (1) Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman born on August 1, 1920, in Roanoke, Virginia, was raised by her grandfather on a tobacco farm in Clover, Virginia. (2) Henrietta Lacks, her husband, and family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1941 seeking economic opportunity at the Bethlehem Steel Plant. (3) In 1951, Henrietta Lacks sought treatment for her continuous vaginal bleeding from The Johns Hopkins Hospital, which was one of the few hospitals willing to treat African Americans at that time. Gynecologists discovered a large, malignant tumor on her cervix. (4) Unbeknownst to Henrietta Lacks or her family, medical researchers took samples of Henrietta Lacks’ tumor during her treatment without her consent. Henrietta Lacks’ cells, now known as HeLa Cells , doubled every 20 to 24 hours whereas other human cells died in the same time period. The HeLa Cells are the first known immortal line of human cells in history. (5) On October 4, 1951, 31-year-old Henrietta Lacks died of an aggressive cervical cancer eight months after her cancer diagnosis, leaving behind her husband and 5 children. (6) The HeLa immortal cell line is the oldest and most used human cell line used in scientific research. Henrietta Lacks’ immortal cells have been commercialized and distributed worldwide to researchers, resulting in groundbreaking advancements in modern science and technology. (7) Henrietta Lacks’ prolific cells continue to replicate to this day and contribute to remarkable advances in medicine, including the development of the polio vaccine and drugs used to treat cancer, HIV/AIDS, hemophilia, leukemia, and Parkinson’s disease. HeLa cells have been used in research that has contributed to our understanding of the effects of radiation and zero gravity on human cells, and have informed research on chromosomal conditions, cancer, gene mapping, and precision medicine. (8) The use of HeLa cells as the