In-vitro fertilisation, gene mapping, cancer research, vaccinations - so many medical milestones have been made possible because of the particular properties of the cells taken from Henrietta Lacks, a poor, disenfranchised Afro American woman who had no idea (and no compensation) that her DNA was completely unique.  This is a stunner of a story showcasing great research and terrific writing.  

Book Description

In 1951, doctors took a small tissue sample from a black woman named Henrietta Lacks without her knowledge or consent.  A scientist put that sample into a test tube, and though Henrietta died a few months later, her cells - known worldwide as HeLa - are still alive today. They became the first immortal human cell line ever grown in culture and were used to develop the polio vaccine. Research on HeLa helped lead to in vitro fertilization, cloning, stem cell research and gene mapping. Skloot tells the story of those amazing cells, the woman they came from, and the collision between science and her family.