The Brownsdale Study Club met Feb. 21 at the home of Mary Gallaher.

The meeting was opened with the reading of the collect. Secretary and treasurers reports were given and 10 members answered roll call to the “Longest trip you every made.”

There was no old or new business. Shelley Vogel will host the March meeting.

The meeting was adjourned.

Mary Mortiz gave the outside reading, “Olympic History and Trivia.”

The Olympic Games originated in Olympus, Greece in about the year 776 BC consisting of five events, a foot race, long jump, discus, javelin throw and wrestling match.

Initially ancient Olympic Games were limited to male citizens of Greece. Women’s events debuted in 1924 when Paris hosted the summer games. That was the first time a closing ceremony was also featured.

Jane Hartson gave the main topic. In January of 1951 Henrietta Jacks went to John Hopkins [the only hospital that treated black patients] when she said she felt a knot in her womb, which was assumed to be a pregnancy.

After giving birth her doctor took a biopsy of a mass on the cervix, which proved to be adenocarcarcinoma of the cervix.

Samples taken were given to Dr. Gey, a cancer researcher at John Hopkins. It was discovered that her cells were unique in that they reproduced at a very high rate and could be kept alive longer to allow for in-depth examination.

They became known as HeLa cells.

The ability to rapidly reproduce HeLa cells in a lab has led to many important breakthroughs in biomedical research. HeLa cells were put into mass production and mailed to scientists around the globe for research.

HeLa cells were the first human cells successfully cloned in 1955.

Mary served a cherry dessert.