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Grand Challenges is a family of initiatives fostering innovation to solve key global health and development problems. Each initiative is an experiment in the use of challenges to focus innovation on making an impact. Individual challenges address some of the same problems, but from differing perspectives.

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Novel Sensor and Biomarkers for Diagnosis of Malaria Using Human Breath

Stephen TrowellCSIROCanberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Grand Challenges
Global Health Interventions
10 Feb 2016

Stephen Trowell from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Australia will develop a highly sensitive low-cost and low-invasive diagnostic test for malaria that detects volatile chemicals in exhaled breath. Malaria is one of the most severe infectious diseases affecting hundreds of millions of people per year. Although several diagnostic tests are available they are relatively complex and expensive suffer from limited sensitivity and all require a sample of blood. To overcome these limitations they have developed a test that can detect malaria based on a signature of volatile chemicals (thioethers) released in the breath of patients with so-called controlled human malaria infection. They will now determine whether their signature has diagnostic value also in clinical settings in three distinct genetic and ecological environments namely children at risk of malaria in Malawi and at-risk adults in Bangladesh and in Malaysia by measuring the levels of thioethers in the breath. Finally they will assess the predictive power of their signature for breath diagnosis of malaria in patients in eastern Sudan.

Empowering Girls for Improved Health and Wellbeing in Two National Regions in Swaziland

Cebile Manzini-HenwoodSwaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA)Manzini, Swaziland
Grand Challenges
Women and Girls
17 Feb 2016

Cebile Manzini-Henwood of SWAGAA will partner with Together for Girls and Population Council to adapt the 'The Girl Roster' tool, which has been used effectively in diverse settings to identify the most vulnerable girls within a community, and to test and implement several innovative approaches to working with girls in Swaziland. For nearly a decade, SWAGAA has worked with Crossroads International to implement Girls' Empowerment Clubs in schools to help improve gender equality by strengthening girls' social assets and self-efficacy related to sexual behavior, violence and HIV. This grant will allow SWAGAA to strengthen this work by identifying and involving the most vulnerable girls within and outside of schools, to begin working with boys to engage them with gender equality and transformative social norms, and by establishing health and multisectoral referral networks that help girls to overcome common barriers to accessing post violence and sexual and reproductive health services. Ultimately, the project will generate evidence on reaching and working with girls who are often excluded from development interventions to enhance their empowerment, safety and well-being.

Population-Based Indicators of Early Child Development

Susan WalkerUniversity of the West IndiesKingston, Jamaica
Grand Challenges
All Children Thriving
29 Feb 2016

Non-Invasive Tuberculosis Diagnosis

Gerard CangelosiUniversity of Washington Foundation, Global WACHSeattle, Washington, United States
Grand Challenges
Global Health Interventions
9 Mar 2016

Gerard Cangelosi and colleagues at the UW Foundation in the U.S. will develop an oral swabbing method as a lower-cost safe and simple way to diagnose tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is a major global health threat and prompt diagnosis and treatment are critical for reducing spread. Currently a diagnosis is made by testing sputum from deep in the lungs produced by coughing. This can be difficult to collect and produce particularly for children and hazardous for health care workers. They previously found that DNA from the causative Mycobacterium tuberculosis accumulates on oral epithelial cells in infected adults and can be detected by non-invasively swabbing the mouth followed by quantitative PCR analysis. They will improve the sensitivity of this method in adults by testing different swabbing materials and protocols using around 175 suspected tuberculosis-positive patients in a clinic in South Africa. If successful they will test whether their method can also be used to diagnose tuberculosis in children.

Evaluating the Feasibility and Acceptability of Implementing New Pregnancy Dating and Fetal Growth Standards in Peri-Urban Nairobi

Nick PearsonJacaranda HealthNairobi, Kenya
Grand Challenges
All Children Thriving
25 Apr 2016

Saving Lives with Better Gestational Age Estimation: Improving the Accuracy of Recall and Reporting of the Date of Last Menstrual Period (LMP) in Rural Bangladesh

Shumona Sharmin SalamInternational Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, BangladeshDhaka, Bangladesh
Grand Challenges
All Children Thriving
4 May 2016

Introduction of Menstrual Tracking Calendar (MTC) into the Existing Health Programs of Bangladesh to Improve Maternal and Child Health

Bidhan Krishna SarkerInternational Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, BangladeshDhaka, Bangladesh
Grand Challenges
All Children Thriving
4 May 2016

Meconium: A New Indicator of Noninvasively Evaluating the Accumulated Status of Neonatal Nutrition in the Intrauterine Environment

Xiangbo XuNational Research Institute for Family PlanningBeijing, China
Grand Challenges
All Children Thriving
22 Jun 2016

First Girls' Education Life Skills Evaluation in a Developing Country Context

Randeep KaurRoom to Read India TrustNew Delhi, , India
Grand Challenges
Women and Girls
29 Jun 2016

Randeep Kaur from Room to Read in India will evaluate a program that teaches life skills, provides mentoring, and establishes community support to ensure girls complete secondary school education and can build healthier lives for themselves and their families. Life skills such as self-confidence and relationship building have recently been shown to boost adult economic outcome. Their Girls' Education Program will be tested in a randomized control trial with over 100 schools in Rajasthan, India, where there is a high incidence of child labor and relatively few girls enroll in school. They will evaluate its impact on academic output and development of life skills after one and two-years. They will also investigate how women who have previously participated in the program perceive its longer-term effects on their lives.

Plan-It Girls: Empowerment, Employability and Entrepreneurship for Older Adolescent Girls in India

Priya NandaInternational Center for Research on WomenWashington, District of Columbia, United States
Grand Challenges
Women and Girls
12 Jul 2016

Priya Nanda of the International Center for Research on Women in the U.S. will help young women in India secure decent employment and raise healthy families by giving adolescent girls access to relevant skills, resources, and connections, and engaging schoolboys and male community members to promote gender equality. They will recruit teachers to implement a specialized curriculum in schools, and connect with local businesses to create pathways to employment. Providing women with access to work should improve family health and income as well as promote economic growth and development.

RINEW: Research on Integration of Nutrition Early Childhood Development WASH

Mahbubur RahmanInternational Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, BangladeshDhaka, Bangladesh
Grand Challenges
All Children Thriving
20 Jul 2016

Piloting Menstrual Hygiene Management Interventions Among Urban and Rural Schools in Bangladesh

Farhana SultanaInternational Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, BangladeshDhaka, Bangladesh
Grand Challenges
Women and Girls
1 Aug 2016

Farhana Sultana of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh will develop and test an approach to bring together all members of a community to improve the health of menstruating girls and motivate them to attend school. Many girls in low-income countries avoid going to school when they are on their period because of poor facilities, lack of sanitation products and support, and social marginalization, which severely affects overall academic performance. In Bangladesh, menstrual hygiene education is limited and generally targets 14-15 year olds, so most girls are unaware of what happens until they actually start their periods. They will test their approach with one-month trials at a range of schools by providing low-cost and safe products and disposal bins, and training and supporting teachers to educate all school children on adolescent health and the effects of puberty. They will also engage parents, school management committees, and local and regional governing bodies to maintain the facilities, and develop girl-friendly school policies.

"Couple Power" Project in Jharkhand, India

Ranjan PandaChild In Need InstituteKolkota, , India
Grand Challenges
Women and Girls
17 Aug 2016

Ranjan Kanti Panda of the Child in Need Institute in India in collaboration with the International Center for Research on Women, and Accenture for the "Couple Power" project, will evaluate their approach to motivate women between 15-24 years old to have their say in sexual and reproductive health decisions at home, thereby improving maternal and family health in India. The project will use digital technology and is designed to engage both men and women in couples and families to encourage equality within relationships. They will hold two four-day workshops for a group of 140 young couples across two districts to train them to act as role models and teachers for other couples in their communities to help change gender norms and roles. A digital application will be built to collect and analyze the data, and to track vulnerable couples.

Combating Gender-Based Violence Amongst the Youth in India Through a Celebrity-Centered Digital Media Edutainment Intervention

Poonam MuttrejaPopulation Foundation of IndiaNew Delhi, , India
Grand Challenges
Women and Girls
9 Sep 2016

Poonam Muttreja of the Population Foundation of India will conduct a pilot project using entertainment via digital media as a form of education (edutainment) to change cultural and social norms underlying gender-based violence in India. They will recruit national celebrities to relay messages that motivate young girls to stand up against violence, and show boys that masculinity is not connected with violence. They will also produce six short films and an anthem condemning gender-based violence targeted to young people to be disseminated across various media channels over ten months. Their approach will be evaluated by measuring the changes in knowledge, attitudes, and perception of young people on gender-based violence.

A Novel Inactivation Method for the Production of a Cost-Effective Poliovirus Vaccine - eVACCINE

Sebastian UlbertFraunhofer GesellschaftMunich, Germany
Grand Challenges
Vaccine Manufacturing
19 Sep 2016

Sebastian Ulbert of the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology in Germany will develop a simple and safer method to inactivate viruses to reduce the cost of vaccine production. Currently the production of inactivated viral vaccines requires treating the viruses over several weeks with toxic chemicals which then need removing. This procedure is time-consuming, hazardous and costly and reduces vaccine activity. They have developed a low energy electron irradiation method that more safely and rapidly inactivates the pathogens by damaging only nucleic acids while leaving intact the protein antigens that trigger the desired protective immune response. They will adapt their approach for the production of a poliovirus vaccine and test different techniques and protocols for scaling up the technology to commercial vaccine production.

Strengthening Livelihood Strategies of Vulnerable Women in the DR Congo

Kanigula MubagwaPanzi FoundationBukavu, Congo (Kinshasa)
Grand Challenges
Women and Girls
29 Sep 2016

Kanigula Mubagwa of the Panzi Foundation in DR Congo will test whether providing resources that simultaneously improve nutrition, income, and social status can help women and girls getting out of prostitution in the cities of DR Congo successfully reintegrate into more rural societies. Prostitutes and their families suffer from high levels of poverty and malnutrition. Individual strategies to support them often provide only temporary solutions. To address this, they will combine a variety of tested interventions including providing agricultural training, nutritional education, and access to crops and equipment, and engage men and prominent local people to transform social norms. They will recruit ex-prostitutes from Salvation Army Centers to evaluate their approach for improving participants' knowledge and skills in agriculture, nutrition and health, and for promoting gender equality in their communities.

Improving Adolescent Newlywed Nutrition and Health for Pregnancy in Bangladesh and Health Across Early Life Stages in South Asia

Keith WestJohns Hopkins UniversityBaltimore, Maryland, United States
Grand Challenges
All Children Thriving
3 Oct 2016

ENGAGE (Enabling Girls to Advance Gender Equity)

Denise DunningPublic Health InstituteOakland, California, United States
Grand Challenges
Women and Girls
11 Oct 2016

Denise Dunning of the Public Health Institute's Rise Up program's "Let Girls Lead" initiative in the US in collaboration with the Girls' Empowerment Network (GENET) of Malawi, and the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) will develop and test a multi-armed approach to empower girls with information, leadership skills, and support networks to reduce the incidence of child marriage and associated harmful traditions in Southern Malawi. Malawi has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world, with half of all girls married by the age of 18. This has serious effects on gender equity, health, and education. They will enroll 800 girls aged 14-18 years from two districts in Southern Malawi and hold weekly workshops over six-months to provide education and skills training. This will be followed by community activities initiated by the girls themselves, such as forming girl clubs and engaging male members of their families and communities to help remove the social and cultural forces that lead to child marriage.

Room to Grow

Léger FoyetPopulation Services InternationalWashington, District of Columbia, United States
Grand Challenges
Women and Girls
11 Oct 2016

Léger Foyet of Population Services International in the U.S. along with the Organization to Advance Solutions in the Sahel (OASIS) and the High Commission of the Nigeriens Nourish Nigeriens agriculture initiative (HC3N) will improve gender equity, nutrition, and access to family planning in Niger. Niger has one of the highest levels of poverty and malnutrition. Women in Niger are usually married before the age of 16 and have on average around eight children. Men generally make the decisions on family planning, and there is limited access to contraceptives and healthcare. Non-governmental organizations have supported over 3,000 community gardens across Niger that use solar-powered drip irrigation for growing basic crops like beans. The gardens are tended daily by women, providing an opportunity to address gender inequality in a safe and supportive space. They will select up to 20 gardens to develop and test a package of successful interventions targeting both women and men including reproductive health counseling, identifying gender-based barriers to family planning, and engaging religious leaders to help overturn deep-seated social norms.

A Single-Administration Prime-Boost Vaccination Platform

Robert GarceaUniversity of Colorado BoulderBoulder, Colorado, United States
Grand Challenges
Vaccine Manufacturing
14 Oct 2016

Robert Garcea of the University of Colorado Boulder in the U.S. will develop a method to manufacture ultrastable vaccines by coating them with nanoparticles so that multiple doses can be delivered in a single injection to reduce the costs associated with repeat immunizations and vaccine refrigeration. They have developed a method to heat-stabilize vaccines for transport and storage that involves controlled freeze-drying of antigens with adjuvants embedded in glassy organic matrices. This mixture is then coated with defined atomic layers of aluminum and additional antigens to protect the vaccines and control the release of the primer and booster vaccine at different times. They will further develop these methods to produce single-shot formulations of selected viral antigens for release at defined times and test their stability and ability to trigger a protective immune response in mice.

Development of a Uterine Electrohysterogram System to Predict Preterm Labor for Routine Clinical Use

Dongmei HaoBeijing University of TechnologyBeijing, China
Grand Challenges
All Children Thriving
1 Nov 2016

Dissolvable Microneedle Manufacturing Platform Technology: Two-Dose Thermostable IPV Patch

Michael SchraderVaxess Technologies Inc.Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Grand Challenges
Vaccine Manufacturing
7 Nov 2016

Michael Schrader of Vaxess Technologies Inc. in the U.S. will develop a microneedle patch that stabilizes vaccines and can deliver multiple doses through the skin at defined times thereby reducing cost waste and the need for repeat immunizations. Vaccinations delivered intradermally via microneedles are at least as effective as intramuscular delivery via injection but reduce the requirement for needles and trained health workers. The patch uses a silk fibroin protein that protects the vaccine against high temperatures removing the need for cold storage and controls the timing of release through the skin. They will refine the material for delivering two doses of inactivated poliovirus vaccine evaluate its safety and activity in animal models and optimize the manufacturing process to ensure reduced costs.

Segmented Filamentous Bacteria as a Vaccination Platform to Protect Young Children Against Enteric Pathogens

Pamela SchnupfParis Descartes UniversityParis, France
Grand Challenges
Global Health Interventions
15 Nov 2016

Pamela Schnupf of Paris Descartes University in France will develop an oral vaccine to prevent infectious diarrhea in children by engineering a non-pathogenic bacteria to express pathogen molecules that can be safely delivered in bacterial spores. Diarrheal disease caused largely by Shigella and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in children under five years of age in low-resource settings. Segmented filamentous bacterium (SFB) is non-pathogenic and normally colonizes the human gut during infancy and stimulates the immune system to protect against infections. They will establish methods to genetically engineer SFB to express selected antigens from enterotoxigenic E.coli and test whether it can stimulate an immune response and protect against infection using established mouse models.

Ultra Low-cost Transferable Automated (ULTRA) Platform for Vaccine Manufacturing

Tarit MukhopadhyayUniversity College LondonLondon, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges
Vaccine Manufacturing
18 Nov 2016

Tarit Mukhopadhyay of University College London in the United Kingdom will develop a manufacturing platform to reduce the production costs of recombinant protein vaccines. Current manufacturing procedures involve serial batch operations in large complex facilities requiring highly trained operators and extensive testing and are inefficient and costly. They will build a platform that integrates and automates key steps to reduce labor costs and capital expenditure and improves product design and control procedures to reduce quality control requirements. Their aim is to maximize the number of doses with the minimal starting material leading to recombinant subunit vaccines at 0.15USD per dose rather than the current costs of several USD per dose. They will develop their approach initially using a rotavirus vaccine candidate.

Development of a Cost-Effective Automated Vaccine Manufacturing System Combining Vero Cell Lines High-Density Bioreactor and High-Performance Membrane Purification Platform in a Self-Contained Miniaturized Facility

José CastilloUnivercellsBrussels, Belgium
Grand Challenges
Vaccine Manufacturing
23 Nov 2016

José Castillo of Univercells in Belgium will create a compact low-cost and automated vaccine manufacturing platform by integrating three new technologies to produce more affordable vaccines at around 0.15USD per dose. Vaccine doses are generally 1-10USD most of which is due to inefficient production and high manufacturing costs including the need for major infrastructure. This relatively high cost prohibits their widespread use particularly in developing countries with limited funds. Starting with an inactivated poliovirus vaccine they will design and develop a compact high cell density bioreactor that concentrates vaccine production and high affinity capture membranes to streamline purification. They will house the technologies in a compact series of isolators that can be accommodated in a smaller laboratory space and perform pilot testing at a manufacturer's site to evaluate productivity and analyze purity and concentration of the vaccine.

ELICIT: Early Life Interventions for Childhood Growth and Development in Tanzania

Estomih MdumaHaydom Lutheran HospitalHaydom Mbulu, Tanzania
Grand Challenges
All Children Thriving
30 Nov 2016
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