Dr. Sayera Banu is the Head of Program on Emerging Infections, Infectious Disease Division, icddr,b. She graduated in Medical Sciences in 1989 and obtained a Master’s in Microbiology in 1997 and a PhD in 2003. She had postgraduate training in mycobacteriology at Pasteur Institut under the direct supervision of Professor Stewart Cole, a leading scientist in mycobacteriology. She also worked as a Visiting Scientist with Professor William Jacobs at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, USA, in 2007 on TB diagnostics. Based on her above-mentioned education and training, she has contributed to the development of TB and leprosy research at icddr,b and has helped to set up a mycobacteriology laboratory. She has also contributed sophisticated work in this area, which includes both microbiological and molecular biological techniques. She has published a number of papers on her research in various peer-reviewed journals.