HeLa cell lines were one of the first things I learned about when I started doing molecular biology research. They're truly universal in the research world -- pretty much every molecular biologist knows of Helen Lacks. That said, I doubt that very many scientists know that she was an unwitting donor, or that there were serious class and racial issues surrounding her "donation". An amazing (and sad) story.
(Not that it's an excuse, but there's actually a relevant reason for screwing that up: in one of my first labs, people referred to them as "Helen Lang" cells, presumably because they didn't know the name of the woman, just the story of her uterine cancer. Hard habit to break, I guess.)
