Why we do what we do | Some of our success stories | A message from our founder
Seeding Success
Tuberculosis in Argentina
In 2004, Dr. Ricardo Morbidoni completed a post-doctoral fellowhsip at the prestigious Albert Einstein College of Medicine and prepared to return to his native Argentina to study drug-resistant tuberculosis -- a disease that affects thousands of his countrymen, and hundreds of thousands of people in the developing world each year. Unfortunately, limited resources in his homeland left him sadly underequipped to do first-class research; as you can see, he worked out of an almost empty room and improvised equipment as best he could -- for example, an incubator made from a used refrigerator.
Enter Seeding Labs.
Thanks to the generosity of Harvard researchers and graduate students, Seeding Labs has been able to collect used, functional equipment once destined for long-term storage or a landfill and distribute it at no cost to scientists who choose to work in the developing world. When Ricardo told us what he needed, we were able to find the equipment on his list and send it to him. Today, Dr. Morbidoni works out of a fully functioning laboratory, receives funding from American agencies to continue his tuberculosis research, collaborates with colleagues in the US and France, trains students, and has published data in international journals.
Medical training in the DRC
Like many institutions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, formal education has struggled amidst a pervasive atmosphere of corruption, conflict and poverty. The central government has had little money to support teachers or properly equip university-level education. This has had a particularly devastating effect on the health of the nation. There are fewer than 5,000 accredited doctors in a country almost four times the size of Texas.
The Congo Protestant University, a private university committed to values of quality teaching, African leadership, and transparent business practice, recognized the needs of the country and drew up ambitious plans for a medical school. One problem they faced was that few of their students had received practical hands-on training in the basic sciences.
Seeding Labs has worked with the leaders of the university to provide equipment for the pre-med physics, chemistry and biology courses. Going forward, Congo Protestant University medical students will provide vital preventative and emergency healthcare to underserved rural areas, and Seeding Labs is committed to help equip their scientific training.
Equipping world-class science
Science is critical for development, now more than ever. The world needs new insights into critical diseases and environmental ills, faster diagnoses and better cures, and expert training for the next generation of educated professionals and inventors. These are the successes Seeding Labs aims to make possible.