Cultural Warning: This episode contains the name of an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person who has passed away.

A rare infection. A Brisbane family tragedy. A young researcher who refuses to stop asking “why”. We’re joined by Kirby Patterson-Fahy, a 23-year-old medical student and emerging scientist at Gallipoli Medical Research, whose path into medicine begins with her sister Anastasia "Taisie" becoming seriously unwell and spending months in hospital. Kirby shares what it’s like to watch clinicians face unanswered questions, and how that uncertainty pushed her to start reading research papers long before she ever stepped into a lab.

We follow the thread that led Kirby to Professor Rachel Thompson’s work on non-tuberculous mycobacteria, including evidence that Mycobacterium abscessus can be grown from tap water in Brisbane. That discovery doesn’t just change how a family thinks about exposure and blame, it opens up the deeper scientific problem: if so many people are exposed, why do only some become dangerously ill? Kirby explains the role of underlying vulnerability, why NTM infections can be hard to diagnose and treat, and what makes mycobacteria so resistant to common antibiotics.

Kirby also talks candidly about building a life that can hold both clinical training and medical research: early-morning swims, tight scheduling, learning the “why” behind guidelines, and seeing how evidence-based medicine is actually made. Along the way, we hear about growing up with two mums, foster sisters, and a strong sense that family is defined by care, not biology. If you care about Australian medical research, antibiotic resistance, mycobacteria, and the future of clinician-scientists, this conversation will stay with you.

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