Teen helps create a cure

Science World, Nov 13, 2006 by Karen Barrow

While working in a research lab here in the United States, 18-year-old Britni Lonesome is helping people all around the world.

As a senior in high school, Britni teamed up with scientists who are working on developing a new treatment for tuberculosis (TB). This contagious disease, which causes abnormal growths in the lungs and other tissues, kills roughly 2 million people a year. Currently, the only treatment is a pill that must be taken four times a day for up to nine months.

This kind of rigorous treatment might become a thing of the past because of the work of Britni and researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. Britni helped the scientists develop and test a small, plastic-like disk that contains a large dose of the TB medication. The disk, inserted by a doctor under a person's skin, would slowly release the medication over several months.

At first, Britni found her lab work challenging. "It was a new world to me. But I read a lot, and over time figured it all out," she says. She is excited about continuing her work now that she is a college student at Johns Hopkins. "What I'm doing can help somebody one day," says Britni.