Why we do what we do | Some of our success stories | A message from our founder
“When given the opportunity to succeed, gifted people will transform their lives.”
We all have a vision for the world we hope to see. I envision a world where every disease has a cure, and where anyone who is sick can receive a thorough diagnosis and treatment within reasonable distance of her home. I envision a world in which intelligent, creative individuals have the resources at hand to explore and understand the natural world and develop appropriate technologies to improve their communities’ standard of living. I believe that these visions rest on building scientific capacity in all parts of the world.
I was only thirteen when I decided to become a geneticist. I had the good fortune of growing up with access to a science education of the highest quality, and of studying at some of the most well-funded scientific institutions in the world. Institutions where resources are so freely available that everything from PCR machines to boxes of Petri dishes are often thrown out with the nightly trash, discarded to make way for a newer model or a different brand.
I have also had the good fortune of meeting my scientific counterparts around the world, and glimpsing the difficult conditions in which they work. In Nairobi I met scientists working three to a desk, with one microscope among them. I met young scientists from Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan and Iran, each chosen by their national genebanks as the one employee to train in molecular biological techniques and bring this expertise back home. And at a rice research station in the Ivory Coast I met Jeannette, who, despite the double burden of being a single mother and a high school dropout, had worked her way up from the rice fields to the post of lab technician. I worked with Jeannette for a year, and found she had as much to teach me in the lab as I her. Jeannette was talented and she understood exactly what she was doing in the lab. The lab position brought her respect, allowed her to put herself and her daughter through school, and involved her in the development of eighteen varieties of rice currently being grown throughout Africa.
Jeannette and the other scientists I met around the world made it clear to me that when given the opportunity to succeed, gifted people will transform their lives, regardless of background.
But they also taught me how scarce those opportunities, and the resources required, can be. Part of Jeannette’s job in the lab was to hand wash and sterilize plastic test tubes and pipette tips, which were reused for at least three months before disposing of them. What we throw away or set aside without a second thought are the tools that can make a real difference in the lives of others.
That is why we formed Seeding Labs. We mobilize scientists to collect the surplus equipment from their labs that would otherwise be discarded and help them send it to their colleagues around the world. We reduce the amount of machinery going into landfills, we allow scientists to equip their labs and stretch their small research budgets, and, most importantly, we seed relationships among scientists around the world.
Our vision is a simple one: we believe that there is real talent in parts of the world where resources and attention are scarce. If we can seed a hundred new labs in the developing world, we will not only give talented scientists the opportunity to live and conduct first-rate work in their homelands, we will also create numerous opportunities for people like Jeannette to realize their true potentials, and perhaps change the lives of entire communities. We are looking forward to the opportunity to do much more — after all, there are so many resources to share, and so many people who stand to benefit.
Sincerely,
Nina Dudnik
Executive Director, Seeding Labs