Irina Kontsevaya

Course: 2023-2024

I am a postdoctoral researcher with an interest in tuberculosis diagnostics, novel tuberculosis disease and cure biomarkers, and treatment monitoring tools. I studied Biology/Biochemistry at Samara State University in Samara, Russia, and then finished my PhD in Genetics of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in 2014. In parallel with PhD, I also studied Business & Informatics. I have 15 years of experience in the field of tuberculosis diagnostics including 7 years in a regional reference tuberculosis laboratory in a high TB/MDR-TB burden setting where I combined routine diagnostic work with research. Over my professional life, I worked in Russia, UK, the Czech Republic, and now Germany. Here in Germany, I have just finished working as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Division of Clinical Infectious Diseases, Research Center Borstel, and am currently in search for new opportunities. Also, I am an Honorary Postdoctoral Researcher at Imperial College London, UK. I have extensive experience in international multicentre clinical research projects in the field of diagnostics and biomarkers of tuberculosis. At my previous position I was an Academic Lead of Work Package Biomarkers in the UNITE4TB, the largest public-private partnership for accelerating the progression of new drugs and regimens against tuberculosis.

“One of my main objectives in studying Global Health was to improve my understanding of health as not just the absence of disease but rather a state of full physical, mental, and social well-being on individual, national, and global levels. So far, I have mostly worked on one socially relevant disease, tuberculosis, but I wanted to learn more about the global burden of disease, including non-communicable diseases, their socioeconomic and environmental determinants, and general principles of dealing with them in the current situation of climate crisis, wars, and economic instability. Already in the first three months of the MGH course I feel that many of these requests have been addressed. Experts with an normeous professional experience in various areas of global health shared the knowledge with us, not only theoretical but also practical, from their own experience in organizations such as the World Health Organization, the World Bank, universities, and international NGOs. They taught us to understand the global burden of disease and its socioeconomic and environmental determinants, see each disease as part of the “big picture”, understand the trends in global health in a normal situation and in an emergency, e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic.


I feel that my professional experience in the field of diagnostics and biomarkers of
tuberculosis, including 7 years of work in a high-burden country, has already helped to understand this as a global issue. But now, with the MGH course, I can see how my knowledge is being integrated with the understanding of other diseases, especially non-communicable diseases and mental health issues, that were less in my professional focus before”.

My future engegement in Global Health

Before starting this course, I had a theoretical interest in working for an organization dealing with global health issues. Now, after having had a chance to learn from so many experts with the experience in this field, I feel very motivated to engage with global health in my future career. Actually, as I am currently in the search of a new job opportunity, I have recently reconsidered my search strategy and started looking for positions more related to global health. I feel very inspired by the instructors seeing how each one of us can contribute to a better life quality of this and future generations, at the same time applying more sustainable practices in our professional and everyday life to reduce the harm that has already been done to the planet. There is still so much more that is needed to be done: work towards the universal health coverage and equitable access to health care, healthy diet, clean air and water, sanitation and hygiene, and active and healthy lifestyle. Health is a human right that should be provided to everyone, everywhere.

As many regions of the world are going through the epidemiological transition and non-communicable diseases play a more and more important role in the global burden of disease, I appreciate the knowledge about these issues and their socioeconomic determinants that is being given at this course. Before the course my interest was more on clinical research, including randomised clinical trials. Now I can also see myself working in implementation projects, helping disadvantaged communities to get access to services they have a full right to. I feel that not only my professional knowledge but also my interest in learning languages can be of use here to communicate with the communities better.

I am looking forward to the next modules of the programme where we will learn more about the global burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases but also will understand how global health works as a system, in terms of cooperation, management, advocacy, communication, diplomacy, and in cooperation with animal and environmental health. Also, I am looking forward to the summer internship which is a unique opportunity to visit a primary healthcare site in a part of the world that is completely new for me and to conduct a study in a completely new field.