Editor and General Manager
Having shipped 87 tons of scientific equipment to 35 institutions based in 24 countries in the developing world since 2003, the nonprofit organization Seeding Labs has a very focused and motivated staff. CEO and founder Nina Dudnik, Ph.D., compares its origins in the basement of Harvard Medical School to those of such giants as Apple (a garage) and Facebook (a dorm room). While the characterization is a bit playful, it should not obscure the dramatic benefits the organization provides to underfunded and underequipped scientists.
Dudnik’s time as a Fulbright fellow performing agricultural research in the Ivory Coast was both eye-opening and formative. Her host lab—an internationally funded research station that was probably the best-equipped lab in that region (if not the country, according to Dudnik)—had one PCR machine. Supplies were expensive and scarce; microcentrifuge tubes had to be washed and reused. Shipments were costly and slow; the lab sometimes waited months for their arrival. Dudnik notes, “We hoped that if someone was going to a conference in Europe or America they could bring things back.”
Despite limited resources, national turmoil and political instability, over time the lab developed 18 varieties of rice tailored for African farmers and the types of problems they faced. “It was an object lesson for me—not just can you do research in an environment that is far different from what you find in the U.S., but also the kind of local and social impact that research can have,” Dudnik says.
She eventually returned to the U.S. to go to graduate school “…at Harvard, which had almost all the resources you could imagine at your fingertips, all the time, and it was an incredible culture shock.” Seeding Labs grew directly out of Dudnik’s experience and that of some other fellows who had worked in other regions of the developing world. Dudnik explains, “We started to collect the surplus equipment from the labs around us and started to look for scientists to send it to. The very first shipment was a couple of boxes that I carried out of the basement and put on the truck.” In 2008 an organization in New York called Echoing Green, which gives start-up funds to social entrepreneurs, provided the opportunity to shift from a student club to a full-blown nonprofit. “We’ve grown to being able to ship 20-foot shipping containers, so it’s been quite a trajectory,” a somewhat amazed and positively grateful Dudnik notes.
The process for identifying overseas partners for what is now known as the Instrumental Access program starts with an application. Scientists with expertise in technology and international development help review and score the applications. Applicants and university administrators are interviewed to develop a clear picture of the university’s infrastructure, the available human resources, the types of scientific research being conducted and the educational opportunities available for students. Ensuring a long, useful life for equipment that accelerates scientific research and expands education opportunities is the end goal.
The Instrumental Access cycle in 2015 brought 67 applicants; in the end, 16 university departments were selected to receive equipment. (This year’s awards are listed at http://seedinglabs.org/programs-and-impact/instrumental-access/instrumental-access-2016/.)
Prospective applicants for the next cycle are encouraged to subscribe to the Seeding Labs newsletter for current information.
Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology in western Kenya will receive a shipment of equipment to be utilized by 26 faculty and their students in the Department of Biological Sciences. Dr. John Muoma, pictured, focuses his research on increasing food security for inhabitants of the region.In donating equipment to Instrumental Access, Seeding Labs affords companies the opportunity to remove clutter and to reduce both equipment storage and disposal costs and negative environmental impacts. They also get to be part of the global science community in a way that differs from normal business channels. (Partners are listed at http://seedinglabs.org/our-donors/.)
Employees at donating companies benefit as well, and often become involved as volunteers. According to Dudnik, “There is something incredibly powerful about knowing that you’ve contributed to the research of somebody in another part of the world. We even had exchange programs where we’ve sent folks from some of the labs here in Boston to some of the sites in Africa that we’ve equipped. And getting to meet colleagues in other parts of the world who you will probably not meet at the conferences you attend in the U.S.—they’re working on incredibly interesting projects and problems that you otherwise might not have gotten a window into and we’ve seen that turn into, in some cases, long-term relationships.”
Equipment has a catalyzing effect for scientists in the developing world. One recent project involved a scientist named Fabrice Fekam Boyom, who is studying anti-malarials at the University of Yaoundé I in Cameroon. “A lot of scientists we are talking with are essentially doing early-stage drug discovery. They have access to all of this indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants; they do natural products chemistry, take these medicinal plants in the labs and use modern analytical science to identify what compounds in the plants are efficacious against disease and identify potential drug candidates,” Dudnik says.
Boyom received Instrumental Access equipment in early 2014. “We just got some reporting back from him,” says Dudnik. “He was awarded a $100,000 grant, a lot of funding for someone in Cameroon. He is using some key pieces of equipment that he received from Seeding Labs—in particular a spectrofluorimeter and cell culture incubator. Those two items alone could have used up a significant portion of the grant. Because he got them from Seeding Labs, he can use all of the funding for the reagents and chemicals and supplies that he needs and to support his students and his lab.”
Current funding for Seeding Labs comes through a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Global Development Lab and from many companies in the scientific sector. Donations from individuals and foundations also provide important and needed support. A “rolling list” of equipment that is currently needed is available at http://seedinglabs.org/equipment-wish-list-labs/.
Steve Ernst is editor and general manager, American Laboratory/Labcompare; [email protected]