I met Sreyashi Basu in mid-January this year. She’d dropped in to say hello to Prof Tim McHugh, who’d been a project supervisor during her UCL BSc course, which had finished the previous summer. 

I was amazed at how she had spent the six months after graduating setting up a TB initiative in Kolkata from scratch, coming up with an original idea, and working with laboratory scientists, local artists, charities, and schools to engage children and communities with information about TB. She’d also designed materials, produced videos and set up a website.

I was keen to know more, and over email, Sreyashi told me about herself, and about her project, Joi Hok! (which means “Let victory be yours!”).

Sreyashi Basu with scroll painter Swarna Chitrakar

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Anton Chekhov’s life was cut short by tuberculosis in 1904. To mark International Clinical Trials Day, Prof Neil Stoker wonders how the then-incurable disease may have affected Chekov’s creativity and worldview, and reflects on the medical advances made by clinical trials since.

The stage is set at the Almeida Theatre

Last week I exited a performance of The Three Sisters by Chekhov at Islington’s Almeida Theatre.  The theatre was originally built in 1833 for the Islington Literary and Scientific Society, and had housed a laboratory, library and lecture theatre.  Discussion of politics and religion were not allowed, something I think Chekhov might have approved of. (more…)