GRAND RAPIDS, MI Rebecca Skloot, the author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, can trace her passion to tell this story of science, race and medicine to a single moment.

She was 16, taking a biology class at a community college after flunking the class in high school. The teacher talked about HeLa cells, a line of powerful cells used for years in research, and said they came from a black woman. He wrote the womans name on the board: Henrietta Lacks.

It grabbed me for some reason, Skloot said, addressing an audience at a Calvin College January Series lecture on Tuesday, Jan. 15.

Skloot went up to the front of the auditorium after class and asked the professor what happened to Lacks, whether she had children and what they thought about the research. The teacher said no one knew much about her, but he told Skloot she could do some research and write a paper on it for extra credit.

Twenty-five years later, after earning a bachelors degree in science and a masters in creative writing and after spending a decade researching the story of Lacks and her family, Skloot sent the teacher a copy of her book manuscript.

He had no memory of me whatsoever, Skloot said with a laugh.

When : Jan. 3 to Jan. 23, 2013 Where: Covenant Fine Arts Center at Calvin College, 3201 Burton Ave. SE Free Admission More info: Call (616) 526-7018

Here's the lineup for the remain talks:

Wednesday, January 16 -- Cokie Roberts "An Insider's View of Washington D.C."

Thursday, January 17 -- W. Dwight Armstrong "Feeding the World and the Future of Farming"

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Flunking biology class led Rebecca Skloot to moment that inspired “Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”