[Profile] Lyda Osorio—tackling South America's infectious diseases

Hailing from a small town in the middle of Colombia, Lyda Osorio's interest in science was sparked during a high-school project on Gregor Mendel's plant experiments. Her teachers saw she loved genetics and encouraged her to learn more. “I couldn’t get enough of genetics”, she tells The Lancet Infectious Diseases. “I then discovered Darwin and was absorbing anything else I could find.” Although her family was poor, Lyda ended up with a high score in the national exams, which qualified her to study medicine at a public university, Universidad de Caldas, some 8 h drive from her home.