Ms Ngoc Ha received an MSc from the University of Science, Ho Chi Minh City, in October 2011. Her research project, which was conducted in the TB group at OUCRU, has been developing a test for rapid detection of resistance to the drug ethambutol in the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes tuberculosis, is becoming more common worldwide and therefore rapid and accurate methods to detect resistance are urgently needed. Tuberculosis is usually treated with at least four drugs to prevent the emergence of drug resistant strains. Ethambutol is one of the drugs used in standard treatment for tuberculosis and it plays an important role in preventing the development of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in patients infected with a strain already resistant to another drug. Her project evaluated the distribution of mutations in the emb gene, which are responsible for ethambutol resistance and then developed a multi allele specific PCR (MAS-PCR) to rapidly detect ethambutol resistance.