In February, a group of researchers from Stanford University traveled to Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (North Korea) to set up that country's first laboratory capable of detecting drug-resistant tuberculosis. After famines plagued North Korea in the 1990's, the country witnessed a resurgence of tuberculosis. South Korean sources believe TB has affected as much as 5 percent of North Korea's population of 23 million. The TB project seeks to strengthen North Korea's ability to detect all forms of the disease and support its treatment and control.

Stanford epidemiologist Sharon Perry and Dr. Gary Schoolnik were among the U.S. team who traveled to North Korea. They spent time working with doctors at the Ministry of Public Health in Pyongyang, the nation's capital. In this interview they share with AAAS members memories of their time in this secret state.

Science: New tuberculosis lab hailed as breakthrough in health diplomacy

New Frontiers in Science Diplomacy: Navigating the Changing Balance of Power

Universities, industry, and government must join to develop state-of-the-art “regulatory science” that can speed evaluation of new drugs and medical procedures and bring them more quickly to patients, Dr. Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, told a AAAS audience.

An easy-to-manage, intermittent dosing schedule of antiretroviral medication may work just as well as daily doses to prevent transmission of human immunodeficiency virus or HIV, new research on monkeys published in Science Translational Medicine suggests. HIV currently affects about 33 million people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.