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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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CassavaTech

Vaibhav TidkeInstitute of Chemical TechnologyMumbai, , India
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
1 Nov 2013

Vaibhav Tidke of the Institute of Chemical Technology in India will design and test a low-cost movable dryer called CassavaTech to easily and quickly dry large quantities of cassava, which is a major staple crop grown by women smallholder farmers. The majority of harvested cassava is dried to form flour and chips, but traditional hand drying methods take between five and fifteen days, which limits time for other activities. CassavaTech will reduce the drying time to only eight hours and will optimize the design and build a prototype to evaluate performance in the laboratory and using women farmers in the field.

Water Irrigation Pump Built from Automobile Components

Brian LillyErgo-Tech, IncorporatedItasca, Illinois, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
1 Nov 2013

Brian Lilly of Ergo-Tech Inc. in the U.S. will design and build a water irrigation pump from inexpensive and widely available automobile parts to decrease labor and increase production of women smallholder farmers in Africa. Irrigation is one of the most time-consuming and labor-intensive activities of women farmers. Making an irrigation system from automobile parts is useful because the parts are well tested and mass-produced in Africa, and expertise on their repair and maintenance is readily available. Lilly will build an irrigation system from automobile parts using different designs for the pump and battery charger components, and test the interchangeability of different parts. Once the design is finalized, he will build 10 machines and test them in Africa to evaluate performance.

Anemia and Women Smallholder Farmers

Carmine BozziAkeso, LLCSeattle, Washington, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
25 Oct 2013

Carmine Bozzi of Akeso Associates in the U.S., along with Maurice Masoda of Heal Africa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, will test the effect of treating hookworm infections in women smallholder farmers in the Democratic Republic of Congo on disease prevalence, iron status, and capacity for labor over a 12-month period. Hookworm infections are endemic in many regions, and infection rates can reach 50% of the population. Hookworms reside in the intestinal wall where they mediate blood loss causing iron deficiency and anemia, which is exacerbated in women due to menstrual blood loss and iron demands during pregnancy. This anemia in turn leads to reduced aerobic work capacity, therefore successful treatment of these infections could result in significant gains in labor productivity.

The Economic Burden of Human and Animals Diseases

Matthew BondsHarvard UniversityCambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Human and Animal Health
25 Oct 2013

Matthew Bonds of Harvard University in the U.S. will quantify the economic burden of disease using a combined metric to incorporate disease impact on both human and animal health. Current measures of economic burden consider humans and animals independently, yet they are both influenced by disease and by the health of each other. They will develop an integrated model combining epidemiology and economic growth to uncover links between disease impact and income in both human and livestock systems. Their model will be tested in the field using target human and wildlife populations in Madagascar to quantify the overall economic burden of disease.

Detection, Vaccination and Control of Brucellosis

John McGivenAnimal Health and Veterinary Laboratories AgencyAddlestone, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges Explorations
Human and Animal Health
24 Oct 2013

John McGiven of the Animal Health Veterinary Laboratories Agency in the United Kingdom, along with David Bundle of the University of Alberta in Canada, will evaluate a glycoconjugate vaccine for brucellosis that is safe, stable, inexpensive, and efficacious. Complementary diagnostics will allow for the differentiation of vaccinated and infected subjects and assist in the control of this insidious zoonotic disease. They will test both the vaccine and the diagnostic in a standardized mouse model.

Engineering a Biologically Inspired Condom

Patrick KiserNorthwestern UniversityEvanston, Illinois, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Next Generation Condom
24 Oct 2013

Patrick Kiser of Northwestern University in the U.S. proposes to synthesize new polymeric materials that mimic the properties of mucosal tissue and to use these materials in the development and manufacture of condoms. These technologies could improve sensation and the condoms would be readily manufacturable for deployment across the globe.

Non-Invasive Detection of Viable Adult Filarial Infections Using The "Capaci-Dance Patch"

Judy SakanariUniversity of California San FranciscoSan Francisco, California, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
24 Oct 2013

Judy Sakanari of the University of California, San Francisco, and Manu Prakash from Stanford University in the U.S. will develop a cheap electromagnetic detection device to non-invasively assess the viability of parasitic nematode worms in infected patients to guide treatment duration. Current methods of detecting viable worms in nodules or the lymphatic system are invasive or expensive. Using animal infection models, they will develop an easy-to-use electronic bandage enabling ultrasensitive detection of capacitance changes caused by movement or physical changes in the adult worms following drug treatment. This could greatly improve the ability to perform in vivo drug studies in animals by being able to non-invasively monitor worm viability over the course of drug treatment and dosing. The bandages will ultimately be tested on humans and could be designed to transfer data remotely for real-time monitoring of the effects of drug treatments in the field.

Build Interoperability Into NGO Information Repository

Pushpa SinghCivil Society Information Services IndiaMumbai, , India
Grand Challenges Explorations
Data Systems
23 Oct 2013

Pushpa Singh of the Civil Society Information Services India in India will develop a common repository to receive, validate, and store information from multiple sources on not-for-profit organizations to make it easier to access support from philanthropic intermediaries. Philanthropic intermediaries currently perform independent searches to find appropriate NGO partners to support, which costs time, money, and effort. The relevant data generated during these searches would benefit others, but it is often wasted, made inaccessible, or in a form that makes it incompatible with similar datasets. To address this, Singh will build a validated, searchable, and up-to-date NGO information source. Using test partners, Singh will design and develop the architecture for the system, which includes a tool that can transform diverse types of data into a standard format and vice-versa, and an tool for importing and export data.

Determining Perceptions of Smallholder Women Farmers

Louiza DunckerCouncil for Scientific and Industrial ResearchPretoria, South Africa
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
23 Oct 2013

Louiza Duncker of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in South Africa will evaluate the perception of labor by women smallholder farmers in South Africa and their need of labor-saving efforts, in order to guide the development of an effective labor-saving practice or device. Current labor-saving efforts are often driven by supply, without a full understanding of the needs of the users. They will identify measurable variables, such as time, to generate questionnaires to capture more broadly the perception of labor in a study group of smallholder farmers in three diverse regions of South Africa. They will also determine the farmers' needs for and knowledge and perception of labor-saving, and use this to identify an appropriate tool or practice. The results could be used to develop guidelines for wider application of their approach.

A Rift Valley Fever Vaccine for Use in Humans and Animals

George WarimweJenner InstituteOxford, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges Explorations
Human and Animal Health
23 Oct 2013

George Warimwe of the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom will develop a vaccine to protect a variety of species, including humans, sheep and cattle, against Rift Valley fever, which can cause serious illness. Current vaccines that are in development have safety concerns for use in humans. They have developed a Rift Valley fever vaccine using a replication-deficient simian adenovirus as a safe vector that is easy and inexpensive to manufacture, and have tested its safety and immunogenicity in mice, and begun field-testing in sheep in Kenya. They will test safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine and the effect of an adjuvant in calves and goats, and compare this with the data from mice and sheep.

Transformative Tools for Women Smallholder Farmers

Alexander MosesonDrexel UniversityPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
23 Oct 2013

Alexander Moseson of Drexel University and Tyler Valiquette of Catapult Design in the U.S. will optimize the design and promote the local implementation of planting and weeding tools that increase productivity and reduce labor of smallholder rice farmers in Asia. They will refine their design for easier manufacturing, and locally establish production and maintenance centers. They will also develop a local social entrepreneurship business plan to promote widespread adoption by farmers in South Asia, with a view to expanding to other regions and crops.

One House-One Health Approach to Child Growth and Development

Peter RabinowitzUniversity of WashingtonSeattle, Washington, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Human and Animal Health
23 Oct 2013

Peter Rabinowitz of the University of Washington in the U.S., along with colleagues at Washington State University and CDC Kenya, will test whether unhealthy gut microbes in livestock that co-reside with humans in smallholder households can negatively influence the gut microbes in the humans, and whether this can be exploited to improve human health. The microbial community (microbiota) living in the gut is important for childhood health, growth and development. They will analyze the gut microbiotas of healthy and unhealthy children and co-residing companion and domestic animals in selected households in western Kenya to determine whether they are related. If they are, they will reset the animal microbiota using established fecal transplant methods and determine whether there is a corresponding positive effect on the microbiotas of the rest of the household.

Use of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis to Assess Impacts of Rabies, Brucellosis and Their Interventions

Syed AbbasPublic Health Foundation of IndiaNew Delhi, Delhi, India
Grand Challenges Explorations
Human and Animal Health
22 Oct 2013

Syed Abbas of the Public Health Foundation of India in India, with colleagues Manish Kakkar and Krishna Rao, will adapt a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis approach to integrate different perspectives from the animal, environment, and human health sectors on the impact and intervention scenarios of zoonotic diseases, which infect animals and humans. The impact of a single disease and the effects of a specific intervention strategy affect the sectors in different ways. They will test their approach by consulting major stakeholders in each sector on the impact of intervention on one human disease (rabies) and one animal disease (brucellosis) within their sector, and use these to develop weights that allow direct comparisons across the sectors in order to promote more effective collaborations that can better protect health and food security.

Interoperable Data for Poverty Eradication

Simon ParrishDevelopment Initiatives Poverty Research LtdBristol, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges Explorations
Data Systems
22 Oct 2013

Simon Parrish of Development Initiatives in the United Kingdom will create a toolkit for the generation of a single interoperable dataset from diverse databases to help more users better assess the impact of resource spending in developing countries. Accurately assessing the impact of spending in areas such as health and education in specific locations, and the ability to directly compare different locations, is necessary to effectively eradicate poverty. However, the relevant datasets are currently incompatible or difficult to access by the appropriate communities. Parrish will partner with a Ugandan organization and community leaders in two districts to identify relevant datasets and the pertinent information they contain. This will be used to generate a merged dataset along with a web-based tool for local users, which will then be evaluated for interoperability and usability.

The One Health Metric: Measuring the Poverty Impacts of Disease

Kim ThomsonUniversity of ReadingReading, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges Explorations
Human and Animal Health
22 Oct 2013

Kim Thomson of the University of Reading in the United Kingdom will develop a combined metric to account for the impact of both human and animal diseases on poverty. This one health metric will incorporate two recognized poverty metrics: one that measures the poverty impact of individual livestock diseases, and the other that measures the poverty impact of human disease, which reflects both quantity and quality of life years. This will enable comparisons of poverty impact both between different diseases and across different populations. Thomson will devise the metric using available global health and disease datasets, and assess its reliability by field-testing it using data from Kenyan households.

Stored Energy Solar Stove Technology

Derek Dunn-RankinUniversity of California, IrvineIrvine, California, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
22 Oct 2013

Derek Dunn-Rankin of the University of California, Irvine in the U.S. will refine the design of an energy storage device that collects and stores solar energy to enable indoor or evening cooking in developing countries. Traditional stoves use wood or animal dung as an energy source, which are labor-intensive methods, environmentally unfriendly, and potentially deleterious to health. The storage device consists of an insulated box containing potassium nitrite and sodium nitrite, which undergo a solid-to-liquid phase transition at a certain temperature. During re-solidification, the stored energy is slowly released to provide a stable heat source that can be used to cook foods such as bread and rice. They will work to optimize the design to improve performance and reduce the cost of the device, in order to move towards mass production.

Nano-Beads Adjuvant for Theileria parva Vaccine

Jean-Pierre ScheerlinckUniversity of MelbourneMelbourne, Victoria, Australia
Grand Challenges Explorations
Human and Animal Health
21 Oct 2013

Jean-Pierre Scheerlinck of the University of Melbourne in Australia will develop an effective vaccine against the parasite Theileria parva, which causes East Coast Fever in cattle, by conjugating parasite lysates to nanobeads, which act as an adjuvant to induce a strong immune response. Upon infection, the parasite enters cells of the immune system making classical vaccination strategies that induce antibody responses ineffective. Protecting these animals against infection instead requires a cytotoxic T cell immune response. Nanobeads are inexpensive, inert, 40nm diameter beads that, when covered with antigens, can induce a cytotoxic T cell response in humans. Scheerlinck will generate parasite lysates from infected lymphocytes grown in the laboratory as a source of antigens, conjugate it covalently to nanobeads, and inject them into cattle to test for a robust cytotoxic T cell response and protection against Theileria parva infection.

Moma's Farm

Mustafa Ojonuba JibrinAhmadu Bello UniversityZaria, Nigeria
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
21 Oct 2013

Mustafa Ojonuba Jibrin from Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria will produce a participatory reality TV show to promote the use of draught animals to help female farmers in Nigeria with ploughing, ridging, and weeding. Female farmers are far less likely to use draught animals for farming as they have less access than male farmers, and lack skills and confidence, and it is considered culturally unacceptable for women to use them. As television and social media are widely available in Nigeria, he will develop a reality show using male and female participants with incentives to encourage public voting and thereby viewing, to promote female use of draught animals and increase cultural acceptance of the practice.

Integrated Human and Animal Vaccination Delivery

Ndadilnasiya Endie WaziriAfrican Field Epidemiology NetworkAbuja, Nigeria
Grand Challenges Explorations
Human and Animal Health
21 Oct 2013

Ndadilnasiya Endie Waziri of the the African Field Epidemiology Network in Nigeria will determine whether combining child and animal vaccination programs can reduce the incidence of vaccine preventable diseases in Nigeria. Current programs often fail to reach highly mobile rural communities who raise livestock. This dependency on livestock may make them more agreeable to vaccination programs that offer protection for both their animals and themselves, which would also optimize the use of limited health care resources. They will use GPS-enabled smart phones to map these nomadic communities and their movements. A vaccination strategy will be designed, and key workers in the human and animal health sector will be trained to educate the communities and deliver vaccinations against a variety of diseases including polio for humans and anthrax for livestock. Coverage and cost-effectiveness of the strategy will be evaluated.

Water Catchment, Storage and Irrigation for Women Farmers

Rachel HessMennonite Economic Development AssociatesLancaster, Pennsylvania, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
21 Oct 2013

Rachel Hess of the Mennonite Economic Development Associates in the U.S. will work in Ghana to test different models of water catchment and storage and irrigation systems to promote dry season cultivation in small farms in the north part of the country. Food production by women farmers in Ghana's northern savannah region is restricted to a single season of rainfall and is not sufficient to circumvent malnutrition. Low-cost water storage systems are available, but need to be brought to these rural areas and adapted to their needs and capabilities. They will recruit users to evaluate four models for ease of assembly and use, and select at least two to evaluate performance in 15-20 households, and do cost-benefit analyses.

C. elegans as a Targeted Molecular Surrogate for Filarid Parasites

Kaveh AshrafiUniversity of California San FranciscoSan Francisco, California, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
21 Oct 2013

Kaveh Ashrafi of the University of California, San Francisco in the U.S. will use the free-living model nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans as a molecular platform to identify new drugs capable of killing adult filarial parasitic worms, which cause serious infections. C. elegans is a non-parasitic model organism that can be easily grown and manipulated in the lab, unlike related parasitic Roundworms. Ashrafi will genetically engineer C. elegans to carry the parasitic version of the gene encoding phosphodiesterase-4, inhibition of which is known to kill the parasites. This mutant, as well as one carrying the human version of the same gene, will be used in screens to identify drug candidates that can selectively kill adult parasites.

The Condom Applicator Pack (CAP)

Michael RutnerHouse of Petite Pty. Ltd.Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Grand Challenges Explorations
Next Generation Condom
18 Oct 2013

Michael Rutner and Russell Burley of House of Petite Pty. Ltd. in Australia will build and test a universal condom applicator pack (CAP), which is designed to ensure that male condoms can be quickly, accurately, safely and easily fitted. Condoms are currently mostly applied manually, which can increase the risk of disease transmission or unplanned pregnancy due to damage to the condom during fitting or incorrect positioning, for example. The CAP and condom will be provided in the same packaging, and the mechanism is designed to ensure correct positioning and avoid damage. They will review materials for the CAP and build prototypes to be tested in the lab and in trials, as well as performing preliminary production and marketing.

The Use of a New Technology of Planting Based on Seed Tape

Mateus MarrafonInstituto KairósSão Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
18 Oct 2013

Mateus Marrafon and colleagues from Instituto Kairós in Brazil will produce a new system for planting seeds using biodegradable strips of paper to increase productivity and decrease time and labor costs for smallholder farmers in Africa. The seeds are attached to the tape at regular intervals, which improves growth, and the tape physically protects them from pests and high temperatures. They will generate tape prototypes for both manual and animal sowing, and test their performance in the laboratory and in the field. They will also teach individuals how to manufacture and use the seed tape.

One-Dose Vaccine That Prevents Viral Disease in Perpetuity

Daniel RockUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignUrbana, Illinois, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Human and Animal Health
18 Oct 2013

Daniel Rock of the University of Illinois in the U.S. will develop a multivalent vector vaccine from the ubiquitous Orf virus that can protect ruminants from multiple diseases with a single dose. Current vaccines for a variety of animal diseases that cause substantial economic costs in the developing world are expensive and require multiple doses. The Orf virus has a wide host range, induces robust and long-lasting antiviral immunity, and can be extensively modified to express antigens from a variety of viruses. It can also pass to non-vaccinated animals providing an inexpensive and easy way of protecting large numbers of animals. Rock will begin by constructing an Orf-based vaccine using known antigens of the peste des petits ruminants virus and assay its efficacy in goats or sheep, its long-term persistence, and its ability to transfer to and protect unvaccinated animals.

A Human Powered Precision Seeder

Ricardo Capúcio de ResendeUniversidade Federal de ViçosaViçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
17 Oct 2013

Ricardo Capúcio de Resende of Universidade Federal de Viçosa in Brazil will design and test a new machine to enable women smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa to more efficiently and effectively plant seeds. He has designed a new seeder concept using only two rotating parts, which is light, easy to use and maintain, and can simultaneously plant two crops. He will query local manufacturers and users to further develop the design, and then produce prototypes that will be bench- and field-tested for manufacturability and performance. The results will be used to produce the final seeder design, and this design concept could be applied to other agricultural machines.

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