Meet David Lewinsohn

(By Abhignya Devarakonda, Stop TB USA, Youth Leadership Board. Interview edited for length and clarity.)  

What is your name? Where are you located? How are you involved with TB?
My research background was immunology and then I did my internal medicine training at UC San Francisco at the peak of the AIDS epidemic. People were just beginning to understand that TB presented in strange ways in people with AIDS . It’s also one of the ways in which I got really interested in advocacy, because it was during ACT UP. So it was an amazing argument for how advocacy can really make a difference. 

Sadly, all the things that were so interesting in TB then are still interesting now. TB remains the number one infectious disease in the world:  it's a disease of poverty and people who are under-resourced. That's an ongoing theme as we talk about things like availability of drugs and vaccines.And yet, you know, we've sort of known how to treat this thing for now, like, 70 years, right? 

But I want to know why do most people who get exposed don't get sick and at some very fundamental level, how does the human immune system recognize the infected cell? I mean, we came to Oregon in 1998, and my core research focus has not really changed in all that time. For example, we always start with T cells that see TB and then try to figure out how they work.

What is your message about TB that you would most like to share, and who is your target audience for that message?

Well, I feel like my target audience is other advocates. I think where I have expertise is in immunology, and the host defense to TB, and all that kind of basic science stuff.

My goal is working with advocates to build that momentum for clamoring for new tools like in ACT UP. 

What do you hope to contribute to the organization of StopTB? And what excites you about being a part of StopTB?

It allows me to get to interact with some amazing people.

We had a global forum for TB in Brazil last year, and it was so interesting because we basic science guys got to hear about the global impact, advocacy work, and community engagement. I don’t know that much about advocacy so for me that was fun.

We kind of know how to do it, but it's a question of political will and resources: I remember the whole Christmas seals thing was all about driving trucks around that had x-ray machines and screening people.

And we've seen with COVID, where even though we have this amazing vaccine, there's been all this pushback to science, and advocacy can really help, which is fundamentally why I really like being involved with Stop TB USA.

Tell us something about your life outside TB. 

One of my passions is back country skiing: getting to a lodge by helicopter, and climbing up and speeding down stuff all week.

I also have a ham radio license and  have gotten to know all the people who do emergency communication in my local area because we're at risk for a big earthquake and are just trying to prepare, so there’s a partnership, like StopTB.