Bioorthogonal chemistry, tuberculosis, and making the best of opportunities

Bringing Chemistry to Life

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Sometimes you feel like you missed an opportunity, or didn’t make the best out of it, or sometimes you feel like life is unfair and doesn’t offer any attractive chance. Then you hear stories like Mireille Kamariza’s and your perspective changes.

This is classic Bringing Chemistry to Life episode, where an incredible personal story is intertwined with great science. Dr. Mireille Kamariza, junior fellow at the Society of Fellows at Harvard University, is driven by her personal experience growing up in war-torn Burundi. She was given the opportunity to move to and study in the U.S., rose to the challenge becoming an expert in biorthogonal chemistry and developed a technology for a highly reliable, yet simple and affordable, detection method for tuberculosis. Now Mireille, nominated as one of Fortune Magazine’s most powerful women, wants to give back and aims at addressing the TB global health crisis thanks to her technology.

While listening to Mireille’s personal story alone is well worth your time, make no mistake, there is great chemistry here. Another brilliant example of chemistry at the interface with biology, where some of the most exciting results in modern science come from.

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About Your Host

Born and raised in Italy, Paolo Braiuca, a PhD in pharmaceutical sciences, co-founded a startup company after conducting research in biocatalysis in Italy and the UK. He transitioned from R&D to business development, working in commercial, product management, and marketing roles in the specialty chemicals, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical markets in Germany and the UK. A busy father of four, if asked, he’ll call himself a “maker” at heart and enjoys inventing electronic devices in his free time.