crookedindifference:

Used Lab Equipment Finds A Second Home Overseas

Amanda Nottke, who has just defended her Ph.D., puts down a handful of pipettes and explains.

“We help consolidate surplus into shipments to go to labs in developing countries,” she says. “Our upcoming shipment is going to be going to University of Nairobi in Kenya.”

Labs all over the developing world can really use this stuff. Science overseas often stalls because of a lack of basic equipment, and many times, teaching labs just don’t have enough materials to go around.

That’s where a nonprofit called Seeding Labs comes in. They shuttle surplus lab supplies from the U.S. to the people who need them in the developing world, with the help of student groups like this one.

Seeding Labs was founded by Nina Dudnik, who has a Ph.D. from Harvard in molecular biology. “There are talented people everywhere in the world, but they don’t have equal access to the resources to do great science,” she says.