The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced today that it is accepting applications for Round 10 of its Grand Challenges Explorations initiative, a USD$100 million grant initiative encouraging innovation in global health and development research. Anyone with a transformative idea is invited to submit an easy, online, two page application.Grand Challenges Explorations is pleased to have … [Read more...]
Genetically Engineered Bacteria Prevent Mosquitoes From Transmitting Malaria
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute have genetically modified a bacterium commonly found in the mosquito’s midgut and found that the parasite that causes malaria in people does not survive in mosquitoes carrying the modified bacterium. The bacterium, Pantoea agglomerans, was modified to secrete proteins toxic to the malaria parasite, but the toxins do not harm the mosquito … [Read more...]
Glaxo’s RTS,S Malaria Vaccine Shows Promise
Preliminary results from the trial of a malaria vaccine show that it protected nearly half of the children who received it from bouts of serious malaria, scientists said Tuesday. The vaccine, known as RTS,S and made by GlaxoSmithKline, has been in development for more than 25 years, initially for the American military and now with most of its support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. … [Read more...]
RTS,S Malaria Vaccine
QUESTION:What information can you provide on this vaccine candidate?ANSWER:RTS,S is a vaccine candidate against Plasmodium falciparum malaria which works by encouraging the host's body to produce antibodies and T cells which diminish the malaria parasite's ability to survive and reproduce in the liver.Produced by GlaxoSmithKline, RTS,S is the first vaccine candidate against … [Read more...]
Researchers to Develop Mobile Phone Based Malaria Detector
The University of Glasgow has received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to further help in the diagnosis of malaria. The $100,000 award will go towards developing a device which uses mobile-phone derived technology that can detect and separate red blood cells infected with malaria parasites.It is hoped that if successful, devices based on the technology could be mass … [Read more...]
Researchers Discover Insect Repellent Thousands of Times More Effective than DEET
Imagine an insect repellent that not only is thousands of times more effective than DEET – the active ingredient in most commercial mosquito repellents – but also works against all types of insects, including flies, moths and ants.That possibility has been created by the discovery of a new class of insect repellent made in the laboratory of Vanderbilt Professor of Biological Sciences and … [Read more...]
Principles of Magnetic Levitation and Cell Phone Technology to Be Studied for Malaria Diagnosis Tools
The Gates Foundation has funded a project at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) that uses the principles of magnetic levitation and cell phone technology to create an inexpensive, portable device to quickly and accurately diagnose malaria outside of the laboratory setting. The GCE received more than 2,500 grant submissions from 100 countries, and selected 88 projects, including that … [Read more...]
New Biomarkers Study Could Lead to Improved Malaria Vaccines
In the first study of its type in the malaria field, Seattle BioMed has been awarded an $8.9 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to identify biomarkers that will allow malaria vaccine design based on robust predictors of protective immunity.According to Ruobing Wang, M.D., Ph.D., the goal of the study is to identify and validate biomarkers that correlate with … [Read more...]
The Institute for OneWorld Health Announces Development of Alternative Source of Artemisinin
The Institute for OneWorld Health (iOWH), a non-profit drug development organization, announced today that its development of an alternative source of artemisinin using pioneering synthetic biology technology (semisynthetic artemisinin (ART) project) has successfully entered the production and distribution phase.The semisynthetic version of artemisinin is targeted to be an affordable, … [Read more...]
Pharma Service Company Quintiles Selected for Gates Foundation Consortium Clinical Trials Work
Quintiles,an integrated biopharmaceutical company, has been named a preferred provider to a consortium of 14 global health Product Development Partnerships (PDPs), funded in part by the Bill and Melina Gates Foundation . PDPs are not-for-profit entities formed for the purpose of advancing global health and the health of the world’s poorest by the discovery, development and delivery of new … [Read more...]