One Researcher's Quest to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections

2012 Pew biomedical scholar Aimee Shen studies one of the leading causes of illness for people in hospital settings. As an assistant professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at the University of Vermont, she's looking for ways to disable the bacteria Clostridium difficile, which contribute to 14,000 deaths linked to diarrheal illnesses in the U.S. every year, according to the CDC.