Roland Pattillo

Roland A. Pattillo (June 12, 1933 – May 3, 2023) was an American medical doctor and researcher, who was noted for his involvement with the HeLa line of cells and his connection to the family of Henrietta Lacks, from whom the cells were cultured.

Biography Pattillo grew up in the 1930s in a segregated Louisiana town, the son of a blacksmith turned railroad worker. He graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana with a bachelor's degree, and received a scholarship to attend medical school at Saint Louis University, where he studied under Edward Adelbert Doisy and George Gey. He died on May 3, 2023, at the age of 89.

Career Pattillo's career and research were driven by his experience of Henrietta Lacks' suffering. After her death, he purchased the headstone for her grave, and became close to her family, serving as an intermediary between them and the many researchers and journalists who wished to contact them. 2003: Medallion of the International Trophoblast Society Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award Pioneer Award from the National Institute of Health for Frontiers in Stem Cell research