On New Year's Day 2000, David "Sonny" Lacks Jr. drove into an empty alley behind his brother's house in Baltimore and dropped off investigative science writer Rebecca Skloot.

"This is where we take scientists and reporters wanting to know about our mother," he said. "It's where the family gangs up on them," he added, laughing –– and drove away.

Lacks' mother was Henrietta Lacks, a young, impoverished African-American mother of five who had died nearly 50 years earlier of a virulent strain of cervical cancer.

Doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital had taken a sample of her tumor without her knowledge.

Cells harvested from other patients invariably died. But Lacks' cells thrived, reproducing rapidly in laboratory cultures. They became key to development of the polio vaccine, gene mapping and other medical and scientific miracles that have saved untold lives and earned researchers millions.

The so-called "HeLa" cells were quickly hailed by scientists worldwide.But few knew their origin.

Henrietta's family found out about the cells by chance in 1973. Outraged and feeling exploited, they closed ranks around their story –– until Skloot came along.

Her 2010 book, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," remains on best-seller lists.

The critically acclaimed first-person narrative threads fearlessly and sensitively through a minefield of informed consent, racial, social and bioethical issues at the heart of the Lacks family's lives.

It's the Open Book selection at Elizabethtown College, where Skloot will give a Scholarship and Creative Arts Day keynote address at 3 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, in Leffler Chapel and Performance Center. The talk culminates a year-long college program centering on the book and HeLa cells.

Joining Skloot on the Elizabethtown podium will be David Lacks.

• A dozen years after she recorded the unpromising scene in the alley, Skloot has forged lasting bonds with the Lackses.

"They kind of took to Rebecca," Lacks said by phone from his home in Baltimore. Lacks' late sister, Deborah, became especially close to Skloot, though the relationship blew hot and cold as Deborah gradually overcame her distrust.

"They did a lot of research together," said Lacks, who nervously put off his own first meeting with Skloot for a couple of months.

When he learned her intent, he said, "I felt kind of nice about what she wanted to do." He drove her to see his big brother, Lawrence, who cooked her a feast of pork and fried eggs.

Skloot acknowledges David Lacks in the book "for seeing the value of this project and being its backbone within the family."

Lacks said he appreciates Skloot's long, personal immersion in the story.

"She wouldn't give up," he said. "She got the science part of it and the human part of it. ... She did a great job."

Skloot launched the Henrietta Lacks Foundation shortly before the book was published; the nonprofit, as of January, had awarded 27 grants to help Henrietta's descendants cover medical and other costs.

• Today, Skloot and Lacks sometimes give talks together as speakers for the Portland, Ore.-based Lyceum Agency, which specializes in publicizing writers and artists.

Lacks, a genial-sounding man who drives a tractor-trailer for a living, has donned suit and tie for appearances across the country.

He does it, he says, because "people want to hear from a character from the book. ... They like to see what we have to say. These college students can come up with some questions," he added. Such as why Lacks, a 64-year-old quintuple heart bypass survivor who cannot afford health insurance, is not angry.

He said one reason is that Skloot's book "has changed our life a whole lot. We're getting recognition that we never got before."

In May, he said, a French painter will meet with the family to talk about doing portraits of Lacks and his brothers Lawrence and Zakariyya. A delegation from Japan came by last year to shake Lacks' hand. "That was a warm feeling," Lacks said.

He remembers nothing of the woman who inadvertently set all this in motion. Henrietta Lacks died when he was a toddler. But he's proud of the mother he never knew.

When a family member contributes to the well-being of everyone on the planet, he said, "It's a good feeling."

Contact Sunday News staff writer Jon Rutter at jrutter@lnpnews.com.