From the Faces of TB series. Solving the world’s toughest global health problems doesn’t happen without a wide array of partnerships. But critical, and often overlooked, are the people who agree to participate in clinical trials of vaccines. They help the world understand more about the diseases we fight, how we fight them, and how we get closer to answers we need. To solutions. So many individuals, like this man, in their own ways, help move us forward, together.
Waiting. At a clinic near Worcester, South Africa. I’m back posting again, and finally on a subject that is my everyday work: tuberculosis and global health
Few things generate such an immediate, visceral reaction as anything vaguely “nuclear.” Yet for such an evocative word, very few people actually know what radioactive material is. The green liquid in this vial is radioactive phosphate, a substance used for decades in molecular biology research. Using this specific material (not all isotopes are green – sorry, Simpsons fans) has allowed us to understand the very roots of our chemical composition in the letters of our DNA. Pictured behind the vial is a protective lead container.