Finding new paths to health: One student bridges borders and disciplines
While conducting tuberculosis research last summer in Matamoros, Mexico, Benjamin Black met a patient whose condition left a lasting impression. The man was still very weak even after completing treatment, a reminder of the long-term challenges many patients face and of the purpose behind Benjamin’s work.
“You spend long hours behind a computer, and it can feel isolating,” Benjamin says. “But seeing who you’re helping—that’s when it hits home.”
While completing a Master of Public Health in epidemiology at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, Benjamin traveled to the Texas-Mexico border with support from the R. Palmer Beasley, MD, and Lu-Yu Hwang, MD, Travel Award in International Research. He is exploring how knowledge from geroscience—the study of aging—can help predict which tuberculosis patients are most vulnerable to long-term health complications. By bringing insights from geroscience into tuberculosis research, a connection not often explored, he hopes to uncover factors that can better predict long-term vulnerability.
“We can use knowledge from one field to improve another,” Benjamin explains. “If we can identify who is most vulnerable, we can intervene and prevent health outcomes from getting worse.”
One in four people worldwide carries the tuberculosis infection, and it remains the world’s deadliest infectious disease. For Benjamin, those statistics represent patients who can be helped by public health initiatives.
“A lot of countries don’t have the laboratory tools to measure how sick a patient really is,” he says. “That’s where these adapted screening methods can have a big impact.”
Last summer, he worked at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, helping monitor infectious diseases that can spread among immunocompromised patients.
“It was tough seeing kids or young adults battling both cancer and infection,” he says. “But it showed me that infections don’t discriminate. Everyone is vulnerable, and everyone deserves better tools to stay healthy.”
Philanthropic support helps turn his dedication into action. The Aurelia Murphy Killian Endowment in Public Health eased the financial pressure of graduate school for Benjamin, allowing him to focus fully on his lab and schoolwork.
“The donor’s investment doesn’t just help me. It creates a chain reaction,” he says. “Because of this support, I can dedicate more time to research that will ultimately help others lead healthier lives.”
Benjamin’s motivation runs deep. Growing up in The Woodlands, he admired his parents’ generosity and community involvement, even if he once swore he would never follow in their professional footsteps.
“They’re accountants, and I said I didn’t want to work with numbers. Now I analyze data every day,” he says, laughing. “But they taught me that helping people matters most, and that’s what stuck with me.”
A lifelong runner who trains for marathons, Benjamin sees parallels between his sport and science.
“In both, you have to keep showing up,” he says. “You work hard, track your progress, and try to get a little better every day.”
With plans to pursue a PhD in epidemiology, Benjamin hopes to continue developing ways to detect illness earlier and prevent complications so people can live longer, healthier, more fulfilling lives.
“I think about that every day,” he says. “How can I make a difference? How can I help people stay healthy? That’s what drives me.”
