Project Saves Hi-Tech Lab Trash For Scientists In Developing World

Nina Dudnik went to Harvard in 2001 to pursue a doctorate in molecular biology. Instead, the Boston Globe reports, she found a way to provide labs in developing countries with the equipment they needed to conduct research and experiments. Dudnick, who hails from the Ivory Coast, saw Harvard routinely tossing out equipment that was much in demand by the lab she had worked for back home. She decided that there must be a way to provide for underequipped labs abroad with Harvard's throwaways.

With the help of a couple of like-minded graduate students, she enlisted dozens of science students to scour the labs and rescue unneeded microscopes, petri dishes, beakers, centrifuges, ovens, and vast numbers of test tubes. With them, the nonprofit organization she built, called Seeding Labs, has, over the last six years, equipped 22 science laboratories at universities in 13 Latin American and African countries.

The project has expanded to BU, Yale Medical School, Mount Sinai Medical School, and Albert Einstein College in New York. Dudnick also is working with biotech and pharmaceutical giants in the Boston area to donate their outdated equipment as well.

Recipients of the equipment can choose what they need from an online inventory and pay 15 percent of the market value for the product to cover shipping and other expenses. They also receive training on how to use new equipment.

Read about more about Dudnik and her program at Boston.com.

Get HuffPost Impact On Facebook and Twitter!