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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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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.

Innovative, Low-Cost and Environment-Friendly Approach to Control the Human Sleeping Sickness Vector Glossina spp

Njayou Ngapagna ArounaUniversité des MontagnesBangangté, Cameroon
Grand Challenges Explorations
Human and Animal Health
17 Oct 2013

Njayou Ngapagna Arouna of the Université des Montagnes in Cameroon will identify chemical blends to effectively repel tsetse flies, which transmit Human African Trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), as an environmentally friendly method of disease control. Chemical blends released from porous material hung around the necks of cattle in sub-Saharan Africa can protect them from Animal African Trypanosomiasis (nagana), which is also transmitted by tsetse flies. Arouna will initiate a similar approach in humans by optimizing combinations of repellents and testing their ability to repel flies in the laboratory, which will be confirmed in field tests in Central and Western Africa.

Integrate Control of Syndemic Diseases: Malaria, East Coast Fever, and Worms

Thumbi MwangiWashington State UniversityPullman, Washington, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Human and Animal Health
17 Oct 2013

Thumbi Mwangi of Washington State University in the U.S. will work at the Kenya Medical Research Institute in Kenya to test whether treatment of parasitic helminth infections reduces the severity of the co-occurring parasitic diseases malaria and East Coast Fever (ECF) in humans and cattle respectively, which are more difficult to treat. In many developing countries, humans carry more than one parasitic disease, but if and how they interact to affect disease impact, for example by modifying the immune response, is not well understood. Mwangi will perform a controlled field trial in Western Kenya to test the effect of anthelmintic drugs on the incidence and severity of malaria and ECF, and will also analyze the presence of specific cytokines, which are immune signalling molecules, to help understand how pathogen interactions occur.

Flip-Flops and Holograms for Disrupting Helminth Transmission

Tony GoldbergUniversity of WisconsinMadison, Wisconsin, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
16 Oct 2013

Tony Goldberg of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the U.S. will promote the use of flip-flop-style sandals to disrupt the transmission of soil-borne helminths in rural Uganda. Soil-transmitted helminth infections are one of the most common infections worldwide. Their transmission can be disrupted by wearing sandals, but convincing people to wear them has proven challenging. In consultation with the local community, he will design a hologram, which is cheap and mass producible, to stick on the sandals to symbolize the health benefits of wearing them and thereby promote their consistent use. Goldberg will test the ability of the hologram to reduce soil-transmitted helminth infection rates in selected households in Western Uganda.

Combining Metrics for One Health

Simon ReidUniversity of QueenslandBrisbane, Queensland, Australia
Grand Challenges Explorations
Human and Animal Health
15 Oct 2013

Simon Reid and colleagues at the University of Queensland in Australia will develop a combined metric using Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis to integrate divergent values on impacts of disease interventions from the agricultural, animal husbandry, and human health sectors. These sectors are involved in addressing similar issues such as disease control, but they each have different priorities. They will focus on the impact of interventions to reduce the incidence of two diseases in Bangladesh, and use existing data and consultation with stakeholders to identify priorities for intervention, including livelihood impact and livestock productivity, that are then ranked by each sector. This will be used to develop a measurement framework that preserves the priorities for each sector, but provides a means of comparing them and achieving consensus.

Strengthening Mass Drug Administration (MDA) Through Community Dialogues

Sylvia MeekMalaria ConsortiumLONDON, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
15 Oct 2013

James Tibenderana and colleagues of the Malaria Consortium in the United Kingdom are adapting a "community dialogue" approach to build trust between communities and the health system in Mozambique in order to boost participation in Mass Drug Administration (MDA) programs against neglected tropical diseases. Low participation in MDA programs is thought to be caused by negative local perceptions of these diseases and a limited understanding of the goals of MDAs. By engaging with communities to address their misconceptions and fill knowledge gaps, they aim to align the goals of the community with those of MDAs to improve participation. In Phase I, Sylvia Meek performed a pilot study focused on schistosomiasis and trained 157 community members in four, resource-poor districts of the Nampula province to act as dialogue facilitators. They developed materials such as flip charts for the facilitators to inform individuals, including those who are illiterate, during organized sessions about the causes, symptoms, prevention, and control of schistosomiasis. Their study increased awareness and knowledge, and willingness to participate in MDAs, and also mobilized communities to implement preventative measures such as building latrines. In Phase II, James Tibenderana and colleagues will adapt their approach to maximize its impact and address the challenges identified in Phase I. Two additional diseases will be included, and they will train more facilitators. The refined approach will then be tested over a longer period in the same region as Phase I, and involve more extensive evaluation to ultimately test its impact on MDA participation.

Create a Foursquare for Development

Vijay ModiColumbia UniversityNew York, New York, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Data Systems
15 Oct 2013

Vijay Modi and colleagues of Columbia University in the U.S. will create a universal database to centralize the mapping of social infrastructures, such as schools, clinics, and water points, to improve data accuracy and help to better coordinate aid efforts. Currently, data collection of physical points occurs across multiple platforms, and is inefficient and difficult to update. They will build and host a web service providing a simple database that is easy to access and edit to promote widespread adoption and thereby sharing and integration of important datasets.

Open Humanitarian Initiative

Gisli OlafssonNetHopeFairfax, Virginia, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Data Systems
15 Oct 2013

Gisli Olafsson of NetHope Inc. in the U.S. will work to improve humanitarian information management to better inform decision-making in emergency situations, such as after a natural disaster. In a crisis situation, information on what is needed and what is being done comes from different humanitarian organizations, but these data often do not conform to universal standards or are not made generally available. She will consult experts from the private sector and incorporate best practices from different existing data standards efforts. This information will be used to develop a cloud-based interoperability platform that enables information to flow among different systems and be easily accessed by decision makers.

Bridging the Last Mile: Education Feedback Loops in Nairobi

Wayan VotaDevelopment Gateway, Inc.Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Data Systems
15 Oct 2013

Wayan Vota of Development Gateway in the U.S. will combine data generated by citizens and governments into an interactive interface that can be easily accessed and used by average citizens in order to improve their communities. They will focus on education in three Nairobi slums, and engage the local community and government. An application interface will be designed using relevant datasets, such as school performance statistics, community reports, and geographic data, and used to build an interface that can be accessed over the internet or distributed in print form or via messages sent to mobile phones. They will conduct local workshops to test their approach.

Aligning Data Across Incompatible Geographical Units

H.V. JagadishUniversity of MichiganAnn Arbor, Michigan, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Data Systems
15 Oct 2013

H.V. Jagadish of the University of Michigan in the U.S. will take disparate datasets on diverse topics, including education, health, and the environment, which are often reported using different geographical units such as Zip Code or County, and realign them to a common unit so they can be better compared and used. Jagadish will develop four general techniques for aligning data partitions and apply them to existing datasets in one state in the U.S. so that they can be viewed according to different geographical units. Jagadish will also produce an interface so that policy analysts and NGOs can easily access and query these data, and collect feedback to improve the approach.

Sterile Schistosomes for Anthelmintic Therapy

Mostafa ZamanianNorthwestern UniversityEvanston, Illinois, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
15 Oct 2013

Mostafa Zamanian of Iowa State University in the U.S. will take schistosomes, which are parasitic worms that cause a range of infectious diseases, make them sterile, and genetically modify them to deliver anti-parasitic (anthelmintic) agents into humans to protect them against subsequent infections. They will use genome editing, guided by RNA in the worms, to disrupt individual genes required for laying eggs in order to make the worms sterile and thereby non-pathogenic. They will also introduce transgenes that encode for anthelmintic molecules to inhibit parasitic species, including filarial nematodes and juvenile schistosomes, and test their efficacy using animal models. This biological vector system is advantageous as it will specifically target the relevant site in the body and could provide long lasting protection against a variety of parasitic infections.

Long Calving Interval in Pakistani Dairy Buffaloes

Mohammad KhanCharles Sturt UniversityWagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
15 Oct 2013

Mohammad Riaz Khan from Charles Sturt University in Australia will test whether the controlled internal release of progesterone in Pakistani dairy buffaloes can induce pregnancy and thereby increase milk production. Buffaloes are an important source of milk in Pakistan, but they breed seasonally and have a silent ovulation. This translates to a long interval (over 500 days) between calves, which limits milk production. He will test a controlled internal drug-release device over different time periods on animals from small rural farms in Pakistan to determine if it can induce pregnancy to reduce the long calving interval.

Project Rapidom

Willem van RensburgKimbranox (Pty) LimitedStellenbosch, South Africa
Grand Challenges Explorations
Next Generation Condom
14 Oct 2013

Willem van Rensburg of Kimbranox Ltd. in South Africa will test a condom applicator, the Rapidom, that is designed for easy, technique-free application of male condoms. Manual application of condoms takes time, which can lead to incorrect positioning as it interrupts the sexual act, and current applicators require good technique. Kimbranox has designed an applicator with an easy, fail-safe design that is applied with one motion, thereby minimizing interruption. An eight-week, randomized, cross-over study will compare ease of application and customer satisfaction between Rapidom and conventionally-packed condoms.

Alleviating Human and Animal African Sleeping Sickness

Paul DysonSwansea UniversitySwansea, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges Explorations
Human and Animal Health
14 Oct 2013

Paul Dyson of Swansea University in the United Kingdom will work to control the incidence of sleeping sickness in humans, which is caused by the Trypanosome parasite transmitted by tsetse flies, by genetically modifying a fly gut bacterium to deliver double-stranded (ds) RNAs to block two important parasite proteins. Trypanosomes mature in the flies, thereby gaining the capacity to infect mammals. He will engineer the bacteria and introduce them into tsetse flies, then test the capacity of the dsRNAs to inhibit their target proteins in trypanosomes. This approach could lead to long-term control of this disease as the bacteria are maternally transmitted to the offspring.

Rapid Detection of Bovine Tuberculosis in Humans

Linda StewartQueen's University BelfastBelfast, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges Explorations
Human and Animal Health
14 Oct 2013

Linda Stewart and Irene Grant of Queen's University, Belfast in the United Kingdom have developed an immunoassay to help determine the incidence of Mycobacterium bovis, which causes tuberculosis in humans and cattle at currently unknown levels. Tuberculosis caused by M.bovis is resistant to a drug commonly used to treat tuberculosis caused by the more prevalent M. tuberculosis, but the diseases are indistinguishable. They have developed a quick and simple test to assay for the presence of M.bovis-specific antigens, which they identified by irradiating a virulent strain to render it inviable while maintaining critical cell surface protein structures. By collaborating with an African institute, they will refine their assay and evaluate its ability to detect M.bovis in human sputum or urine samples.

Semantic Clustering of Human-Animal Medical Corpuses

Michael KaneYale UniversityNew Haven, Connecticut, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Human and Animal Health
14 Oct 2013

Michael Kane and colleagues from Yale University in the U.S. will create document clustering software incorporated into a web interface to enable clinical researchers to better search through the published literature on both human and veterinary medicine, to promote new discoveries for treating disease. Online biomedical literature and genetics databases carry large amounts of information on animal and human health. However, these two specialities diverge in the ways they are documented, making comparisons across species difficult with current online search engines, even in the context of a single disease such as Rift Valley fever, which infects both humans and animals. They will apply statistics and machine learning methods to enable large quantities of diverse data streams from the human and animal medical fields to be searched, thereby promoting new research directions for Rift Valley fever and other diseases.

An Automated Drug Screening Platform for Helminths

Floriano SilvaFiocruzRio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
11 Oct 2013

Floriano Silva of Fiocruz in Brazil will develop a drug screening assay using automated microscopy to test new drug candidates for toxicity towards adult helminth parasites, which cause a range of diseases. Current screening approaches cannot easily identify drugs that specifically target adult parasites, which is the most disease-relevant life cycle stage. He will develop and validate imaging and computational methods to automatically monitor physical characteristics of the parasites, and perform proof-of-principle drug screens using an FDA approved and an annotated compound library. This approach could be expanded to other parasites and used for screening larger drug libraries to identify new classes of drugs.

A New Tool for Harvesting Cassava

Samuel OkurutNational Agricultural Research OrganizationKampala, Uganda
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
11 Oct 2013

Samuel Okurut and a team from the National Agricultural Research Organization in Uganda will develop a simple low-cost tool for women smallholder farmers to more easily and efficiently harvest cassava, which is a major staple food in the developing world. The classical, manual method for harvesting cassava is labor and cost intensive, involving hoeing and digging in a bent posture. The new tool will be developed with input from women farmers and key stakeholders, and designed to be operated in a more upright posture. The cost-benefit of the tool will be tested in the field, and the feasibility of training and local fabrication will be explored.

Super-Hydrophilic Nanoparticle Condom Coating

Karen BuchBoston UniversityBoston, Massachusetts, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Next Generation Condom
11 Oct 2013

Karen Buch and Ducksoo Kim of Boston University Medical Center in the U.S. will design and fabricate a durable male condom with a super-hydrophilic nanoparticle coating to better protect against breakage and thereby transmission of infection. The coating is composed of covalently linked nanofabricated polymers that work by trapping a thin film of water to reduce friction and shearing forces. The coated condoms will be mechanically tested for surface integrity and friction profiles, and could eventually be combined with anti-infectives.

An Analytical Tool to Transform Genomic Approaches to Nagana

Andrew JacksonUniversity of LiverpoolLiverpool, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges Explorations
Human and Animal Health
11 Oct 2013

Andrew Jackson of the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom will develop a diagnostic tool for Animal African Trypanosomiasis (Nagana), which is caused by unicellular parasites known as trypanosomes and threatens up to 50 million cattle in sub-Saharan countries. To avoid immune detection, the causative trypanosomes change their DNA sequences (genomes), particularly in genes encoding for cell surface glycoproteins, which also affects the symptoms the parasites cause. They will sequence these trypanosome genes from forty parasites spanning diverse countries and hosts to quantify their variation. By associating the variation with disease factors, such as virulence and severity, this profile of variation can be developed as a diagnostic marker to improve disease management and treatment.

C. elegans Models for Anthelmintic Drug Discovery

Cecilia BouzatInstituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de BahíaBahía Blanca, Argentina
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
10 Oct 2013

Cecilia Bouzat of the Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Bahía Blanca in Argentina will develop a drug screening platform to identify new antiparasitic drugs using the model nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. There are limited numbers of effective anthelmintic drugs and resistance to these drugs is emerging in the field. However, parasitic nematodes are unsuitable for large-scale drug screens mainly because they generally require host animals to survive. She will use the related free-living C. elegans to screen extracts of medicinal plants from South America and isolate bioactive compounds from any extracts demonstrated to be toxic for nematodes. The protein targets of these compounds will then be identified and the corresponding DNA from the clinically-relevant nematodes will be incorporated into C. elegans by genetic engineering to validate the compound's anthelmintic activity and enable the testing of derivatives that may be more effective.

Graphene-Based Polymer Composites for High Heat Transfer, Improved Sensitivity and Drug Delivery

Lakshminarayanan RagupathyHLL Lifecare LtdTrivandrum, Kerala, India
Grand Challenges Explorations
Next Generation Condom
10 Oct 2013

Lakshminarayanan Ragupathy of HLL Lifecare Ltd. in India will improve the safety and appeal of male condoms by incorporating graphene into existing natural rubber latex condoms. Graphene is a single-layer, crystalline form of carbon that is highly elastic and very strong. And, unlike latex, it also conducts heat. Mixing graphene with existing condom material should lead to stronger, thinner, heat-conducting condoms that are less noticeable for users, and allow for the incorporation of drugs and compounds that can protect against sexually transmitted diseases or enhance sexual experience. In Phase I, they used a planetary ball milling approach to produce graphene from graphite, incorporated it into natural rubber latex, and used that to produce condoms. Compared to traditional latex condoms, they found that their graphene condoms were over 20% stronger, conducted over 30% more heat, and were as safe to use. In Phase II, they will test the feasibility of scaling up production, and perform more detailed quality control tests as well as a human preclinical trial to evaluate whether graphene condoms are more pleasurable to use and are as safe and effective as traditional latex condoms.

Ultrathin Adaptable Condoms for Enhanced Sensitivity

Richard ChartoffUniversity of OregonEugene, Oregon, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Next Generation Condom
10 Oct 2013

Richard Chartoff of the University of Oregon in the U.S. will develop a high-strength, ultra-thin, shape-memory material for making male condoms. He will tailor polyurethane elastic polymers (elastomers) to reduce thickness and increase strength, and then program them using temperature to fix a temporary shape that can then be recovered upon exposure to body temperature during application, thereby improving tactility and enhancing sensitivity. These elastomers could also be conjugated with nanoparticles containing molecules with antimicrobial activity for preventing sexually transmitted diseases.

Reduced-Cost Xenomonitoring for Lymphatic Filariasis

Nils PilotteSmith CollegeNorthampton, Massachusetts, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
10 Oct 2013

Nils Pilotte and Steven Williams of Smith College in the U.S. along with Lisa Reimer at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom are developing a simple and inexpensive approach to monitor diseases caused by parasites that thrive in mosquitos based on detection in mosquito feces. Current approaches for disease surveillance are expensive, insensitive, or labor intensive, and are generally unsuitable for the areas in which they are needed most, including where disease incidence has decreased. This proposed so-called molecular xenomonitoring approach overcomes these hurdles, in part by avoiding the need for human sampling, and because it can be adapted to increase throughput. In Phase I, they demonstrated proof-of-principle that very low levels of parasitic DNA could indeed be extracted from mosquito fecal samples and then detected by PCR, and also adapted a simple test-strip detection method that could be used in low-resource field settings. They also developed a mosquito trap from a two-liter soda bottle containing a simple carbon dioxide-producing solution and sugar, and demonstrated its ability to attract mosquitos and isolate their feces in a field setting in Trinidad, albeit with modest yields. In Phase II, they will further optimize their detection method and the traps, and perform preliminary field tests in malarial and filarial endemic locations in the Philippines, Ghana, and Haiti.

A Continuous in vitro Culture System for Cryptosporidium

L. David SibleyWashington University in St. LouisSt. Louis, Missouri, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Human and Animal Health
10 Oct 2013

L. David Sibley at Washington University in St. Louis in the U.S. is developing a long-term in vitro intestinal epithelial culture system for the intracellular parasite Cryptosporidium, which causes severe diarrheal disease in both humans and animals, and is refractory to many anti-parasitic drugs. Currently, Cryptosporidium can only be grown in infected calves or in short-term in vitro cultures, which cannot be used for the high-throughput chemical screens needed to identify new drugs. In Phase I, they optimized the in vitro culture of isolated intestinal stem cells from human and mouse biopsies, and identified factors to control their differentiation into primary epithelial monolayers, which can better support the growth of intestinal pathogens. This led to around a five-fold increase in the rate of asexual replication of Cryptosporidium, which was enough to successfully test a chemical growth inhibitor. In Phase II, they will further improve culture conditions to support longer-term in vitro growth of Cryptosporidium, which will then be tested for stability and infectivity. They will also develop antibodies against specific developmental stages to help identify culture conditions that enable the parasite to undergo a complete life cycle, which will be valuable for culturing and screening efforts.

Development of a Single-Dose Contraceptive Rabies Vaccine

Milosz FaberThomas Jefferson UniversityPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Human and Animal Health
10 Oct 2013

Milosz Faber of Thomas Jefferson University in the U.S. will develop a combined contraceptive rabies vaccine that both protects dogs against rabies and reduces their population levels in order to control the incidence of human rabies. Human rabies causes 70,000 deaths annually and is mostly spread by dogs. Current therapeutic approaches to control dog rabies require multiple doses and have had limited success. Faber has designed a safe dog rabies variant that can induce a strong and long-lasting immune response when introduced in mice. He will combine this vaccine with gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), which causes infertility. Three different carrier proteins will be conjugated to GnRH and tested in combination with the vaccine for safety and for inducing immune responses upon a single dose in mice.

Toward the Development of Safe Onchocerca Macrofilaricides

Fidelis Cho-NgwaUniversity of BueaBuea, Cameroon
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
9 Oct 2013

Fidelis Cho-Ngwa of the University of Buea in Cameroon will develop a small animal model to test the safety of candidate drugs for treating the parasitic disease onchocerciasis in people who are coinfected with the Loa loa parasite. Ivermectin, which is used in mass drug administration efforts to treat onchocerciasis, causes severe adverse effects, including death, in people who carry high levels of Loa loa. They will purify early-stage Loa loa from infected human blood and test the ability of a variety of small animal models, including mice, to sustain the parasites over 30 days, which would be enough time to perform an in vivo drug screen. Once a suitable small animal model has been identified and validated, it will be possible to screen large numbers of compounds to identify effective and safer treatments.

Development of the dsRNAs as an Anti-Tick Biological Agent

Jinlin ZhouShanghai Veterinary Research InstituteShanghai, China
Grand Challenges Explorations
Human and Animal Health
9 Oct 2013

Jinlin Zhou of the Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute in China will develop anti-tick biological agents composed of double-stranded (ds) RNAs targeting two selected tick proteins to control the dominant tick species Rhiphicephalus haemaphysaloides, which causes human and animal diseases in south Asian countries. Previous control approaches using pesticides or vaccines have had limited success. Long dsRNAs, which silence target genes, have previously been used successfully to control a tick infestation in cattle. Zhou has selected two candidate proteins in R. haemaphysaloides, P0, which is required for viability, and Rhipilin-1, which is required for the tick to attach to the host. Zhou will synthesize dsRNAs against these proteins and test different liposome types and conditions for optimal delivery into the ticks, and evaluate the effect of the dsRNAs on tick survival and feeding.

Nanovaccine for Brucellosis Using Green Technology

Vandana PatravaleInstitute of Chemical TechnologyMumbai, , India
Grand Challenges Explorations
Human and Animal Health
9 Oct 2013

Vandana Patravale of the Institute of Chemical Technology in India will develop a sub-unit nanovaccine using green technology against brucellosis, a zoonotic disease which is endemic in sub-Saharan West Africa. The vaccine will be developed for non-invasive intranasal administration and the investigators will study vaccine delivery and its ability to induce a strong protective immune response against Brucella in mice, with a view to future clinical testing in humans.

Dissemination of InnovativeTechnologies

Mumbi KimathiFarm Concern InternationalNAIROBI, Kenya
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
9 Oct 2013

Mumbi Kimathi and a team from Farm Concern International in Kenya will promote farming-related trade between and around villages in rural Africa with their "e-Women Dial-up Initiative." They will develop a mobile phone platform for communications, and for ordering and paying for farming-related materials, products, and services. They will test their approach in 10 villages in Kenya, consisting of 5,000 farmers, and establish a rural distribution network by recruiting vehicle owners to reduce the need for individuals to be mobile. They will also set up a supply network of accredited materials, services, and business development service providers. Their approach will be evaluated in terms of volumes traded, income, cost- and time-savings, and the level of individual participation.

A Decoy Artificial Snail Host (DASH) to Control S. mansoni

Edwin RoutledgeBrunel UniversityLondon, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
9 Oct 2013

Edwin Routledge of Brunel University in the United Kingdom will work towards developing an artificial snail decoy to attract the parasite Schistosoma mansoni, which causes chronic disease. The parasites first develop inside aquatic snails, which they locate via chemical cues (chemoattractants), before they can infect humans. Routledge will identify the relevant chemoattractants by isolating and fractionating chemicals from the snails, and test the ability of these chemicals to attract the parasites. Effective chemoattractants will be characterized and ultimately incorporated into a biodegradable matrix to generate an artificial snail that is easy to deploy in the field and can trap and destroy the parasites, thereby reducing human transmission.

PPRV DIVA Vaccine

Geraldine TaylorPirbright InstitutePirbright, Woking, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges Explorations
Human and Animal Health
9 Oct 2013

Geraldine Taylor and colleagues at The Pirbright Institute in the United Kingdom will develop a thermo-tolerant vaccine based on human adenovirus 5 (Ad5) against peste des petits ruminants (PPR), a highly contagious disease found in goats and sheep, that enables the distinction between infected and vaccinated animals (known as DIVA vaccines). Current live attenuated vaccines require cold storage, which is unavailable in many developing countries, and vaccinated animals cannot be differentiated from infected animals, complicating disease control efforts. Ad5–vectored vaccines are safe and effective in humans, inducing both antibody and cytotoxic T cell responses from the immune system. They will extend their preliminary work showing that Ad5-conjugated with surface glycoproteins from the PPR virus provides complete protection in goats by vaccinating local breeds of goats in Africa. They will also determine the minimum vaccine dose and the effect of adding a specific cytokine to enhance immunity.

Amphistome Flukes to Control Schistosomes in African Snails

Eric LokerUniversity of New MexicoAlbuquerque, New Mexico, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
9 Oct 2013

Eric Loker of the University of New Mexico in the U.S., along with colleagues from KEMRI in Kenya, will test whether parasitic flatworms known as amphistome flukes can eradicate the human parasite Schistosoma with the goal of helping prevent human infections. These two types of worms co-inhabit the same snail species. The investigators will harvest large quantities of amphistome eggs from the rumens of routinely slaughtered goats and cattle, and use temperature and light to induce miracidia (larva) to hatch in the laboratory. These will then be tested for their ability to infect schistosome-transmitting snails and to block or prevent schistosome infections in these snails. This low-tech, low-cost approach is more environmentally friendly than current chemical approaches, and its application to transmission sites can be easily halted once infection rates are under control.

Antihistamine Use for Enhanced Macrofilaricidal Activity

Edward MitreThe Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military MedicineBethesda, Maryland, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
9 Oct 2013

Edward Mitre and colleagues at the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine in the U.S. will develop a short course therapy for clearing adult filarial worms, which cause substantial morbidity and mortality, to enhance eradication efforts. Current antifilarial medications target only larval forms of the worms, requiring repeated administration until the natural death of the adults. Filarial infections are known to induce immune cells to release histamine, which can regulate the immune response. Using mouse models of filarial infections, they will evaluate whether a short course of standard antifilarial treatment combined with an antihistamine can clear adult worms and thereby more quickly cure the disease.

Sentinel System for Detection of Schistosome Transmission

Coenraad AdemaUniversity of New MexicoAlbuquerque, New Mexico, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
9 Oct 2013

Coenraad Adema of the University of New Mexico in the U.S. will develop a device to attract, capture, and display a signal from the parasitic flatworm Schistosoma mansoni in order to determine transmission risks and support control efforts. Adema will confirm the reported attraction of the parasite larvae to particular chemicals (chemoattractants) and then analyze whether the subsequent release of parasite enzymes can induce a color change that can be quantitatively detected using a chromogenic substrate. A prototype floating detection device carrying the most effective chemoattractant and substrate will be developed that also enables recovery of parasite DNA for molecular-based detection.

One Metric for One Health: A New Approach

Ali MokdadUniversity of WashingtonSeattle, Washington, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Human and Animal Health
9 Oct 2013

Ali Mokdad and a team at the University of Washington in the U.S. will integrate data on animal health and its determinants to better understand and monitor human health and opportunity in the developing world. Animal health, which itself is influenced by environmental factors, has a direct impact on human health. Although data on all these areas exist, there has been no attempt to amalgamate them to measure the overall impact on human health. They will assess data from Zambia on environmental factors such as temperature and rainfall, and the condition and sales of animals and crops, to identify indicators of animal health. These will be integrated with data on human disease burden and mortality to generate an enhanced human health metric that incorporates the effects of animal health. They will also make recommendations for improved data collection.

Natural Calf Model To Develop Cryptosporidium Treatments

Christopher HustonUniversity of VermontBurlington, Vermont, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Human and Animal Health
9 Oct 2013

Christopher Huston of the University of Vermont in the U.S. will use a calf model to develop effective treatments for the intestinal parasite Cryptosporidium, which causes severe diarrhoea in both humans and animals. Cryptosporidiosis can be life threatening, and current treatments are ineffective. They have performed a cell- based screen of existing human drugs and identified candidates for treating Cryptosporidiosis that need testing in preclinical animal models. Dairy cattle are naturally infected by Cryptosporidium and exhibit similar symptoms as humans, making them an ideal model for testing candidate drugs. Huston will develop this model by infecting calves at birth, monitoring their health, and using them to test candidate drugs for potential repurposing.

Dynamic, Universal Fit, Low Cost Condom

Benjamin StruttCambridge Design Partnership LLPCambridge, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges Explorations
Next Generation Condom
8 Oct 2013

Benjamin Strutt and a team from Cambridge Design Partnership in the United Kingdom will design a male condom made from a composite anisotropic material that will provide universal fit and is designed to gently tighten during intercourse, enhancing sensation and reliability. New designs will be created and tested for specific functional and performance parameters that they will identify by consulting with users. They will also develop a manufacturing process and build prototypes that will be tested for feel, fit, performance, and manufacturability.

An Enhanced Condom Using Nanomaterials

Aravind VijayaraghavanUniversity of ManchesterManchester, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges Explorations
Next Generation Condom
8 Oct 2013

Aravind Vijayaraghavan and a team from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom propose to develop new elastic composite materials for condoms containing nanomaterials like graphene. This composite material will be tailored to enhance the natural sensation during intercourse while using a condom, which should encourage condom use.

A Cell-Based Screen for Discovery of a Macrofilaricide

Kelly JohnstonLiverpool School of Tropical MedicineLiverpool, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
8 Oct 2013

Kelly Johnston and others from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom will develop a cell line from a parasitic filarial nematode worm that can proliferate continuously in vitro to enable high-throughput screening of candidate anti-filarial drugs. Current drug screening efforts are limited by the complex life cycle of the worms and the difficulties of obtaining sufficient numbers of worms. They will isolate worm cells from various life cycle stages and use a high-content screening approach to monitor thousands of cells cultured under different conditions to increase the probability of detecting a stably growing cell line. Once one or more stable cell lines have been produced, they will establish optimal culture conditions for drug screening assays.

High-Resolution Ecological Mapping of Filarial Vectors

Louise Kelly-HopeLiverpool School of Tropical MedicineLiverpool, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
8 Oct 2013

Louise Kelly-Hope of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom and Thomas Unnasch of the University of South Florida in the U.S., along with their research teams, will develop high resolution tools to map the locations and chart the habitats of vectors of several parasitic worm infections to promote safer and more effective control strategies. Some of the drugs that can successfully treat parasite infections become harmful in the presence of other parasites, but predicting where these co-infections are most likely to occur is difficult. Using the fly vectors for the parasitic nematode Loa loa, they will develop a remote sensing model for predicting its presence by identifying environmental factors that the flies favor using satellite technology and geographic information systems, and validate the model by performing ground-based studies in several African countries.

Exploiting IVIS Imaging Technology to Advance Chemotherapeutic Discovery in Filarial Worms

Eileen DevaneyUniversity of GlasgowGlasgow, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
8 Oct 2013

Eileen Devaney and Elmarie Myburgh of the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom will determine whether parasitic filarial worms can be visualized in the lymphatic system of live animals as a means to measure drug activity. Testing candidate anti-filarial drugs using in vivo models is preferable to the current in vitro assays because the selected drugs are more likely to be effective in humans. They will infect mice with either larval or adult stage parasites, and then inject them with bioluminescent substrates of specific immune cells. This should enable them to image the host inflammatory response to the infection, track the parasites within the lymphatic system, and determine the parasites' longevity. Probes to directly detect excretory-secretory products in live adult parasites will also be developed. This approach will ultimately be used for in vivo drug screens.

Ultra Sheer "Wrapping" Condom with Superior Strength

Ron FrezieresCalifornia Family Health CouncilLos Angeles, California, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Next Generation Condom
8 Oct 2013

Ron Frezieres of the California Family Health Council in the U.S. along with Max Abadi of Unique International in Colombia and I.MAXX Inc. in the U.S. are developing a stronger and thinner male condom made of polyethylene to promote condom use. Polyethylene is a non-toxic and hypoallergenic material that wraps and clings rather than squeezes, thereby enhancing sensation and enabling easier application. In Phase I, in collaboration with the polyethylene condom inventor/manufacturer in Colombia, the team optimized the material, tested compatibility with different lubricants, designed discreet packaging, and manufactured two prototypes with either a pull-tab applicator or a flanged base.These were compared with traditional latex condoms for performance and usability by 34 couples that overall preferred the pull-tab condom. In Phase II, they will further optimize the condom by improving the lubrication and application, and develop more economical packaging for developing countries. They will also perform a larger clinical study of the modified product using 300 couples.

Ultra-Sensory Condoms Based on New Superelastomer Technology

Jimmy MaysUniversity of TennesseeMemphis, Tennessee, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Next Generation Condom
8 Oct 2013

Jimmy Mays of the University of Tennessee in the U.S. will develop a prototype male condom made from superelastomers (a highly elastic polymer). This will enable the manufacture of thinner and softer condoms that will enhance user experience. It will also simplify the condom manufacturing process and make it less expensive.

Saving Labor at the Village Level via Biological Weed Control

David SandsMontana State University BozemanBozeman, Montana, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
8 Oct 2013

David Sands of Montana State University in the U.S. will work with Kenyan women farmers to evaluate the performance of a biological control method for eliminating the parasitic weed Striga (witchweed), which can cause up to 80% loss of maize, millet, and sorghum yield in smallholder African farms. Striga is a problem in 43 African countries, and manual weeding is highly time- and labor-intensive. They have previously developed a virulent fungal strain to inhibit weed growth, and shown that it can be easily transported on toothpicks for safe and effective distribution. Preliminary field-tests in one village showed that this fungus could effectively control Striga, and in some instances double crop yield. Sands will expand this testing phase to women maize farmers in 50 villages and evaluate crop yield, weed reduction, and farmer satisfaction over 12 months.

New Molecular Therapies for Parasitic Helminth Infections

Tim DayIowa State UniversityAmes, Iowa, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
8 Oct 2013

Tim Day and Mostafa Zamanian of Iowa State University in the U.S. will evaluate a new approach for treating parasitic worm infections based on blocking parasite microRNAs. Parasitic worms (helminths), such as Schistosoma, release small vesicles called exosomes containing microRNAs, which are thought to target host genes and aid infectivity. They will test this directly using a mouse model of schistosome infection by identifying the relevant microRNAs, designing anti-microRNAs to block them, and determining if the mice can be made resistant to infection. This approach could be expanded to other parasitic worm infections and ultimately used to develop an effective human therapeutic.

Exosomes: New Diagnostic Tools for Schistosomiasis

Paula RibeiroMcGill UniversityMontreal, Quebec, Canada
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
7 Oct 2013

Paula Ribeiro of McGill University in Canada will develop a simple diagnostic test for schistosomiasis, which is caused by parasitic worms, based on microRNAs. Current diagnostics suffer from lack of sensitivity or an inability to distinguish current from past infections. They will evaluate parasite microRNAs contained within small extracellular vesicles (exosomes) as infection biomarkers by first isolating and sequencing them from infected mice. Using this information, they will develop a simple, inexpensive test to amplify the microRNAs from human blood using sera from infected patients in West Africa and Egypt. Their approach could ultimately be used to distinguish between different stages of infection and be broadened to other helminth infections.

Ultra-Sensitive Reconstituted Collagen Condom

Mark McGlothlinApex Medical Technologies, Inc.San Diego, California, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Next Generation Condom
7 Oct 2013

Mark McGlothlin of Apex Medical Technologies, Inc. in the U.S. will produce a male condom with enhanced strength and sensitivity using collagen fibrils from bovine tendons, which are widely available from meat processing. Collagen fibrils would provide a hydrated micro-rough skin-like surface texture that facilitates heat transfer to produce a more natural sensation. They will develop methods to best arrange the fibrils and more safely crosslink them. Barrier properties of the engineered condom will be quantified, enhanced if necessary, and sensitivity will be tested.

Helminth ABC Transporters as Targets for Combination Therapy

Robert GreenbergUniversity of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
7 Oct 2013

Robert Greenberg of the University of Pennsylvania in the U.S., along with Bernadette Ardelli of Brandon University in Canada, will test whether anthelmintics, which are drugs used to treat diseases caused by parasitic worms, can be improved by combining them with inhibitors of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) multidrug transporters. Of the few anthelmintics available, many are of limited use or become ineffective due to the emergence of drug resistance. ABC multidrug transporters regulate the transport of molecules, including drugs, into and out of the cell and have been linked with anthelmintic resistance. ABC transporter inhibitors, which have been approved for use in humans, enhance the activity of anti-parasitic drugs in vitro and may bypass the development of drug resistance. The investigators will use in vivo mouse models of helminth infections to test whether co-administering ABC transporter inhibitors enhances anthelmintic activity, with a view to carrying out clinical trials in humans.

Deconstructing Barriers to Uptake of Labor Saving Devices

James PimunduSend a Cow RwandaKigali, Rwanda
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
4 Oct 2013

James Pimundu and team from Send a Cow Rwanda in Rwanda will test whether educating men and women in Rwanda on gender barriers and social behavior issues stimulates them to use energy-saving stoves for cooking. Although affordable energy-saving stoves are available, they are not widely adopted, possibly because women have limited access to money and lack the power to make decisions. They will train both men and women to inform them of gender barriers in order to reduce inequality. By promoting better technology uptake in this way they aim to substantially reduce the time and labor costs of collecting firewood, as well as empowering the women to take control of other important family issues such as health and child care.

Using Sensors to Understand Insect-Vectored Neglected Infectious Diseases

Yanping ChenUniversity of California, RiversideRiverside, California, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
4 Oct 2013

Yanping Chen of the University of California, Riverside in the U.S. will develop an inexpensive and robust sensor to directly measure the real-time density of insect vectors that transmit parasitic diseases to help plan intervention and treatment programs. Preliminary results indicate that insects can be classified based on the frequency of their wingbeats, which also varies depending on the time of day. Chen will develop an accurate detection system by investigating combining wingbeat frequency with circadian rhythms and other behaviors. A software system will also be produced that can translate the data into real-time counts of insect numbers and produce density maps of their distribution. The sensors will be field tested in Cameroon and Cambodia/Thailand.

Box in a Truck to Transport and Store Cassava

Nnaemeka IkegwuonuThe Smallholders FoundationOwerri, Imo State, Nigeria
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
2 Oct 2013

Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu of the Smallholders Foundation in Nigeria will improve his Box-in-a-Truck design for extending the lifespan of cassava, which is a major staple food grown by women smallholder farmers, to decrease labor costs associated with cassava processing. Cassava spoils within 24 hours of harvesting, and the traditional method of prolonging life by leaving the crops longer in the ground reduces the nutritional content. He has designed a small, manually transportable truck containing a wire box that is surrounded by moist sawdust and can hold 145 pieces of cassava. This Box in a Truck is inexpensive and can be locally manufactured and maintained. Initial tests showed that cassava stored in this way lasted the duration of the 16 day study period and retained more nutrients than when it is left in the ground. He will test extended time spans and optimize parameters for use, and then field-test the device for its capacity to save labor and its suitability for local conditions across different seasons using 200 women smallholder farmers.

A Time-Saving Tool for Stripping Groundnut Pods

Tobias OkerNational Agricultural Research OrganizationKampala, Uganda
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
2 Oct 2013

Tobias Oker and a team from the National Agricultural Research Organization in Uganda will develop a simple plucking tool to more efficiently remove the pods from groundnuts, which is currently done by hand and is labor-intensive and time-consuming for women. They will query farming communities on current harvesting methods to refine their design, and evaluate performance, labor cost, and perceptions in the field using prototypes compared to traditional methods. They will also train users and local manufacturers to fabricate the tools and encourage their use.

Labor-Saving Pearl Millet Thresher for sub-Saharan Africa

Donna CohnHampshire CollegeAmherst, Massachusetts, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
2 Oct 2013

Donna Cohn and colleagues from Hampshire College in the U.S. will develop a cheap and simple threshing machine to more easily and carefully process pearl millet, which is a highly nutritious staple cereal grown in sub-Saharan Africa. To extract the edible grains, pearl millet is currently processed by hand, which is labor-intensive and highly inefficient, causing substantial reductions in yield. They will refine their thresher design, including producing variations for powering it, and field-test prototypes in Ghana for performance. This will drive further refinements to generate a final design, for which production costs will be determined.

Designing for Female Ergonomic and Cultural Appropriateness

William KisaalitaUniversity of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc.Athens, Georgia, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
2 Oct 2013

William Kisaalita of the University of Georgia in the U.S. will redesign a milk churner to make it suitable for women in order to reduce the time and labor needed to make ghee. In many sub-Saharan countries, the morning milk harvested from cattle can be sold in markets, but the milk harvested in the evening needs to be processed into longer-lasting products such as ghee to prevent it from perishing. The current method for churning milk to make ghee is time and labor intensive. He will recruit women in Uganda to test and refine the milk churner design, which is cheap and can be locally manufactured and repaired, to make it more ergonomic and culturally appropriate for women users and thereby promote its widespread adoption.

Draught Power for Women Farmers through Donkey Ploughs

Sara DelaneyEpiscopal Relief and DevelopmentNew York, New York, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
2 Oct 2013

Sara Delaney of Episcopal Relief & Development in the U.S. and Ghanaian colleagues will promote the use of donkeys with ploughs for draught power to decrease labor and increase productivity of women smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Traditionally, oxen are used as draught animals but they are often unavailable to women due to cost, gender and cultural issues, and their large size makes them difficult for women to handle. The donkey ploughs are suitable for weeding and preparing land for a variety of crops, and can be locally manufactured and maintained. The Ghanaian team will run training workshops in northern Ghana for women smallholder farmers currently using hand tools, and provide two affordable financing options for them to purchase the donkey, plough, and cart. Performance, financial aspects, and the level of adoption will then be evaluated.

Market-Based Labor-Saving Weeder Promotion

Brian LundOxfam-America IncBoston, Massachusetts, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
2 Oct 2013

Brian Lund and colleagues from Oxfam America in the U.S. will work in Cambodia to increase the use of labor-saving weeders by smallholder women farmers there. Rice cultivation is the primary source of food and income for these households, and weeding crops requires substantial time and physical effort. Cheap, easy to use, and effective mechanical weeders have been developed and tailored for smallholder women rice farmers, but they have yet to be widely adopted due to limited marketing and inadequate local fabrication and distribution capabilities. They will work with a group of local metal fabrication businesses and distributors to demonstrate the profit potential and train them to manufacture the weeders. They will also launch a marketing campaign, including local advertising and demonstrations aimed at women farmers, to stimulate demand.

Preventing Preterm Birth in Zambia

Jeffrey StringerUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel HillChapel Hill, North Carolina, United States
Grand Challenges in Global Health
Preventing Preterm Birth
1 Oct 2013

Jeffrey Stringer of the University of North Carolina Global Women’s Health group in the U.S. will oversee a team of Zambian and U.S. researchers in a prospective cohort study of 2,000 pregnant women over a three-year period in Lusaka, Zambia. The study will assess gestational age by early ultrasound and collect data and specimens throughout pregnancy and at delivery with standardized systems to document complications of pregnancy and assessment of birth outcomes. Data and specimens will be used to evaluate the causes of preterm birth and investigate novel strategies for prevention.

Development of a Rectal Antibiotic Formulation for Community-Based Management of Neonatal Sepsis

Nicholas WhiteUniversity of OxfordOxford, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges for Development
Saving Lives at Birth
2 Jul 2013

This project proposes to develop a rectal formulation of a third-generation cephalosporin antibiotic for reducing mortality through early community-based management of neonatal sepsis. It will carry out pharmaceutical and preclinical studies with the aim of developing a stable rectal formulation of a candidate antibiotic with adequate bioavailability. Selection will depend on activity against causative pathogens, a good safety profile, and central nervous system penetration. Rectal administration is a simple, safe, and acceptable method of treating sick children. It would be suitable for the community-based management of neonatal sepsis if an appropriate antibiotic could be provided in a stable and adequately bioavailable formulation which could save millions of infants' lives each year.

Determinants of Preterm Birth Associated with Bacterial Trafficking from the Lower Genital Tract

David EschenbachUniversity of WashingtonSeattle, Washington, United States
Grand Challenges in Global Health
Preventing Preterm Birth
1 Jul 2013

David Eschenbach and his team from the University of Washington in the U.S. will determine the effect of disturbances in the vaginal microbiome on preterm birth. Their research will investigate how specific vaginal bacterial infections and changes in the female reproductive tract are associated with preterm birth. The long-term goal is to identify new ways for early identification and treatment of women at risk of preterm birth and develop a point-of-care diagnostic test appropriate for low-resource settings, which would function much like a home pregnancy test, indicating an elevated risk of premature birth.

BeHere-BeThere Project

Christoph NannServiceplanHamburg, Germany
Grand Challenges Explorations
Communicating About Aid
24 Apr 2013

Christoph Nann, Alex Schill, Maik Kaehler and a team from Serviceplan in Germany will test a simple and modern method for generating donations to developing countries. They will use location-based network applications such as Foursquare, which has over 25 million users who record their locations in cafés, shops and restaurants. By setting up collaborations with local retail partners in Germany, they will label their stores on Foursquare with charity projects in developing countries, such as building water pumps, to promote visitors to the stores. Once an organization has been found that can handle the donations, they will launch the locations on a website. When a Foursquare user visits one of the project-labeled stores it will trigger an automatic donation of an agreed amount from the store to that project. The aim is to spread the approach to other cities.

Cheap Yeast-Based Efficient Screens For Antifilarial Drugs

Stephen OliverUniversity of CambridgeCambridge, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
23 Apr 2013

Stephen Oliver and Elizabeth Bilsland at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom will develop a yeast-based screen to identify compounds inhibiting selected enzymes from parasitic filarial worms, which cause several common and debilitating diseases. Candidate enzymes as potential antifilarial drug targets will be selected based on their importance specifically in the adult stages of the parasite life cycle, against which current drugs are ineffective. Yeast strains will be modified to produce these candidate enzymes and used in medium-throughput screens with the freely-available Malaria Box of compounds, which are active against the malaria parasite. This approach is cheaper and easier than current screening methods, and should identify compounds that are highly specific for adult filarial worms.

Lymphatic on a Chip as a Model Host for Lymphatic Filariasis Parasites

J. Brandon DixonGeorgia Tech Research CorporationAtlanta, Georgia, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
23 Apr 2013

J. Brandon Dixon of the Georgia Institute of Technology in the U.S. will develop a scalable, microfluidic-based model of a human lymphatic vessel to support adult- stage lymphatic filariasis (LF) parasites in vitro. LF parasites cause a range of diseases for which treatment options are limited. By recreating the host environment where the parasites normally reside they can keep them alive for longer periods of time, which is required for developing urgently needed new drugs. They will also integrate an optical platform for quantifying parasite viability to provide a real-time readout, and use it to test the efficacy of candidate drugs within a relevant physiological context.

Foodborne Disease Treatments

Aaron MauleQueen's University BelfastBelfast, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
22 Apr 2013

Aaron Maule of Queen's University Belfast in the United Kingdom will develop food crops expressing microRNAs that, upon ingestion by humans, can be used to target and kill parasitic worms and the mosquitos that transmit them. Plant microRNAs can survive the digestion process and are detected in human blood following consumption. Therefore, they may also be encountered by blood-borne parasitic worms and by the blood-eating insects that transmit them, which cause widespread disease. He will select candidate microRNAs and test their activity using rodent infection models. The most effective microRNAs will be tested for toxicity to human cells, and will be used to engineer transgenic plants to analyze efficacy upon ingestion in rodents.

Inhibitors of tRNA-Synthetases as Antimalarials

Ralph MazitschekGeneral Hospital CorporationBoston, Massachusetts, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Malaria Drugs
22 Apr 2013

Ralph Mazitschek of the Massachusetts General Hospital in the U.S. will explore whether inhibitors of tRNA-synthetases, which are enzymes that are essential for survival of the malaria parasite, are effective antimalarial drugs. New classes of drugs that work in different ways are urgently needed because current antimalarials can induce clinical resistance rendering them ineffective. Once they have developed an assay to measure tRNA-synthetase inhibition, it will be used to screen a compound library including the 400 antimalarial compounds in the so-called Malaria Box collection to identify selective inhibitors for further testing.

In Vitro Culture of Filariae

Edward MitreThe Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military MedicineBethesda, Maryland, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
22 Apr 2013

Edward Mitre and his team at the Uniformed Services University in the U.S. will develop a method for the long-term maintenance of parasitic Roundworms (filariae) in cell-free culture. Human filariae cause substantial morbidity worldwide, but current therapies are inefficient or cause harmful side effects. Additionally, the inability to maintain filariae in vitro has hampered screening efforts to identify new drugs. They will determine whether factors secreted by human endothelial cells can prolong the in vitro cell-free survival specifically of adult filariae, which are resistant to some treatments and therefore attractive targets for new therapies.

Programmed Killing of Parasite Eggs by Probiotic Organisms

Tae Seok MoonWashington University School of MedicineSt. Louis, Missouri, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
22 Apr 2013

Tae Seok Moon from Washington University in the U.S. will develop a bacterial-based strategy to block the transmission of soil-transmitted helminth infections (intestinal worms), which occurs via parasite eggs present in human feces. They will engineer consumable probiotic bacteria that are designed to sense when they are excreted from the body and to subsequently release toxic substances designed to kill the parasite eggs in order to prevent disease transmission.

MicroRNA Biomarkers for Parasite Macrofilariae

Paul McVeighQueen's University BelfastBelfast, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
19 Apr 2013

Paul McVeigh from Queen's University of Belfast in the United Kingdom will develop a diagnostic for filarial infections, which are caused by parasitic nematodes (roundworms) and can cause severe pain and disability. He will screen serum samples from filariasis patients to identify circulating microRNAs associated with the presence specifically of adult parasitic nematodes (macrofilariae) as candidate diagnostic biomarkers. As macrofilariae commonly evade existing diagnostics and are resistant to some treatments, this approach could substantially improve elimination efforts of this highly prevalent disease.

Radio8

Mark BashoreDigital KitchenSeattle, Washington, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Communicating About Aid
19 Apr 2013

Mark Bashore and his team from Digital Kitchen in the U.S. will create a worldwide radio channel for children aged 8 to provide knowledge, insights and perspectives on aid, and promote connections between the developing and the developed world. By focusing their approach on the young population, they hope in time to transform the “have and have not” concept of aid. The channel will broadcast aid-related first person stories, music, and cultural exchanges. Radio remains the dominant media in the developing world, and radios are cheap and durable. They will analyze possibilities for the manufacture and distribution of cheap radios, and develop and assess the feasibility of the proposal, and test it with children in the US, Europe, and developing countries.

Malaria Box Target and Mechanism Characterization

Gregory GoldgofUniversity of California, San DiegoSan Diego, California, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Malaria Drugs
19 Apr 2013

Gregory Goldgof, Elizabeth Winzeler and colleagues from the University of California, San Diego in the U.S. have developed a drug-sensitive yeast strain by deleting the main multi-drug export pumps to help identify the mechanisms of action of the 400 next-generation anti-malarial drug candidates in the Malaria Box. This will help optimize drug safety and efficacy for clinical trials. In Phase I, they successfully screened the Malaria Box compounds and identified 30 that were active in their assay. They also performed directed evolution studies by exposing the yeast to increasing sublethal concentrations of 21 of the active compounds. Resistant yeast clones were then sequenced to identify the likely molecular targets. In Phase II, they will exploit the same yeast strain to identify targets for compounds with activity specifically against either the liver stage of the malaria parasite, which could be used to cure infected patients, or the gametocyte stage, which could reduce the rate of malaria transmission. Their approach is particularly valuable for these types of compounds as they cannot be used for directed evolution studies in the malaria parasites themselves.

No-Till Rotary Punch Planter For Women

August BassonKEL Growing Nations TrustMohaleshoek, Lesotho
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
18 Apr 2013

August Basson of the KEL Growing Nations Trust in Lesotho and collaborator Adriaan Jacobs will develop a time-saving seed planter adapted for use by small-scale women farmers planting maize and other grain crops. No-till planters reduce soil disturbance in order to promote conservation agriculture and improve productivity, but current models were designed for commercial use and down-scaled, making them inefficient and impractical for use by women. They will engineer an adapted rotary punch planter and distribute them for testing in the field.

Media Trust: Global360

Caroline DiehlMedia TrustLondon, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges Explorations
Communicating About Aid
18 Apr 2013

Caroline Diehl of Media Trust in the United Kingdom and her team will combine its existing television channel with media partnerships and creative young people to produce the first television, online and mobile channel run by young people to disseminate stories on development. A pilot model has been locally tested using established infrastructure and partnerships. They will form global partnerships for distribution, recruit managers, and build a small team of young reporters and filmmakers from the UK and one or more developing countries, and provide them with a unique platform to create, present, and distribute stories on local and global development.

Hand-Operated Seed Cleaner for Ugandan Women Farmer Groups

Margaret SmithIowa State UniversityAmes, Iowa, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
18 Apr 2013

Margaret Smith and colleagues at Iowa State University in the U.S. will evaluate a simple, portable, hand-operated seed cleaner using 320 women farmers in Uganda. Current practices are physically demanding, time consuming, and reduce the quality of the grain. They will refine the design of the seed cleaner using input from the target farmers to produce a second-generation device for local manufacturing. It will then be tested with several legume crops for durability, ease of transport, and affordability for groups of smallholder women farmers.

Evolutionary Learning Laboratory for Labor Saving Innovation

Ockie BoschUniversity of AdelaideAdelaide, South Australia, Australia
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
17 Apr 2013

Ockie Bosch and his team at the University of Adelaide in Australia will create a virtual Evolutionary Learning Laboratory (ELLab) to identify sustainable labor-saving innovations in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The ELLab is a systems approach designed to incorporate thinking from all relevant groups, such as the farmers, policy makers, and tool developers, in order to define useful, practical, and broadly applicable solutions. They will conduct interviews and run workshops to promote a shared understanding of the needs and viewpoints on labor-saving strategies of the different groups, and build their capacity for thinking more holistically. Proposed solutions, such as new tools, strategies, and policies will undergo a cyclical process of discussions and problem solving, leading to the evolution of more effective labor-saving solutions.

Designing an Agricultural Implement Microfranchise for Women

Patrice MartinIDEO.orgSan Francisco, California, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
17 Apr 2013

Patrice Martin of IDEO.org in the U.S. and Devi Prasad Rao from the Arohana Seva Foundation in India will design and prototype a microfranchise system to rent small and mid-sized time-saving agricultural implements for Indian women smallholder farmers to improve their productivity and incomes. The system will be tailored to meet the unique needs of women smallholder farmers, and incorporate financing, training, and equipment maintenance. They will purchase and develop crop- specific prototype kits, including selected equipment and training materials, and lease them to local entrepreneurs who will be trained and supported to launch the microfranchise to rent out the kits.

Increasing Productivity for and by Women Smallholder Farmers

Alice Irene Whittaker-CummingAfrican Women Education and Development ForumWoodbridge, Virginia, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
17 Apr 2013

Alice Irene Whittaker-Cumming and Veronica Kette of Mother Nature Partnership and the African Women Education and Development Forum in the U.S. will provide innovative reusable menstrual cups and related education to women smallholder farmers. Current cultural taboos inhibit women from farming while menstruating, substantially reducing productivity. Building on a successful pilot project, they will scale-up testing to 5,000 women smallholder farmers in rural Cameroon to evaluate the impact on productivity and behavior. Local health professionals will be recruited to support the project, and educational workshops will be hosted for participants. Radio will also be used to enhance awareness.

Interrogating AntiMalarials Using Optogenetics Technology

Choukri Ben MamounYale UniversityNew Haven, Connecticut, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Malaria Drugs
17 Apr 2013

Choukri Ben Mamoun of Yale University in the U.S. will employ optogenetics technology to identify antimalarial compounds in the so-called Malaria Box collection that specifically target membrane biogenesis in the parasite Plasmodium falciparum, which transmits the disease. Compounds targeting membrane biogenesis are known to inhibit both infection and transmission, as well as potently inhibiting drug-resistant parasites, which are becoming increasingly common. The optogenetics approach involves genetically engineering parasites to carry lipid biosensors composed of a fluorescent protein that can bind to a specific membrane phospholipid. Levels of phospholipids can then be monitored and quantified in the presence of a drug to identify those that affect membrane biogenesis.

Rapid, Low-Cost, Point-of-Care Diagnosis of Loa loa Microfilaremia by Handheld Fluorescence Photodetection

Jason AndrewsStanford UniversityStanford, California, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
17 Apr 2013

Jason Andrews and colleagues from Massachusetts General Hospital in the U.S. have developed a low-cost handheld device that allows rapid and quantitative detection of Loa loa helminthic parasites in the bloodstream by fluorescent photometry. Quantitative detection is important because individuals with high levels of Loa loa can be fatally sensitive to a widely administered drug used to treat another common parasitic worm Onchocerca volvulans. Conventional detection by microscopy is labor-intensive, time-consuming, and often impractical in the field. They will calibrate the device, and then conduct a pilot study at an established field site.

Novel dawadawa therapy for intestinal helminthic infections

Michael ChanThe Chinese University of Hong KongHong Kong, China
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
16 Apr 2013

Michael K. Chan of the Chinese University of Hong Kong in China and his collaborators will use dawadawa, a staple food in western Africa, as the basis of a novel therapeutic for treating and preventing multiple parasitic worm (helminthic) infections, which are prevelant in developing countries. Dawadawa can be produced by fermenting soyabeans with Bacillus bacteria. By engineering Bacillus to produce parasite-killing (antihelminth) proteins, they can make a staple food with therapeutic properties at low cost. The antihelminth proteins will be encapsulated within crystals that both protects them from degradation in the human gut as well as incorporating a chemical trigger for targeting release in the intestine, where most of the parasites reside.

Widespread Monitoring of Soil-Transmitted Helminths

Stephen SowerbyUniversity of OtagoDunedin, New Zealand
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
16 Apr 2013

Stephen Sowerby of the University of Otago in New Zealand has developed a quantitative cell-phone-based diagnostic and will test its ability to detect and monitor soil-transmitted helminth infections (intestinal worms), which are the most common infections worldwide. Quantitative monitoring of infection is crucial for evaluating therapeutic agents to combat the increase in drug resistant parasites. The approach simplifies current diagnostic methods by processing stool samples so that they can be digitally imaged and transmitted via cell phone for remote diagnosis, and is therefore likely to be cheaper and more accessible to developing countries.

HMKD (humankind)

Eric KingLeo Burnett CompanyChicago, Illinois, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Communicating About Aid
16 Apr 2013

Eric King and colleagues from Leo Burnett in the U.S. will create a working stock ticker on the New York Stock Exchange that will track the daily performance of aid to publicize that investment in humankind (HMKD; i.e. aid) is working. They will work to list HMKD on the New York Stock Exchange and create a news site containing daily updates of activities, such as where new wells have been dug. They will also present data on the type and distribution of aid, and on the return, such as changes in literacy rates and disease control. By daily presenting aid in investment terms on a global stage, they hope to better highlight its success to a wider audience.

Rural Mobility and Agro-Products Collection Centers

Seshie AhedorVivus Ltd.Accra, Ghana
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
15 Apr 2013

Seshie Ahedor of Vivus Ltd. in Ghana will establish an infrastructure to provide cargo motorbikes to rural women farmers for labor-enduring activities such as the collection of crops, and to enable access to remote markets for selling produce. They will set-up mobility collection centers for provision and maintenance, and test on-demand pay-as-you-go versus group-ownership financing models in several villages. Once the most effective financing model has been identified, they aim to build a network of collection centers to provide affordable mobility options for smallholder farms nationwide.

Neobreathe

Avijit BansalWindmill Health Technologies Private LimitedNew Delhi, , India
Grand Challenges India
India-GCE
15 Apr 2013

Avijit Bansal and Ayesha Chaudhary of Windmill Health Technologies in India will develop an easy-to-use device to enable front-line health workers to more successfully resuscitate newborns. The current bag and mask device is inefficient and requires two trained personnel who are often not available. They have designed a foot operated manual resuscitator that also reports real-time performance, and requires only one trained operator. They will measure performance parameters of the prototype to generate evidence to support progress into clinical trials. This grant was selected through India's IKP Knowledge Park and their IKP- GCE program.

Supporting Uptake of Time and Energy-Saving Technologies

Michelle WinthropFood & Agricultural Research Management LimitedLondon, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges Explorations
Women Farmers
15 Apr 2013

Michelle Winthrop of Farm Africa (Food & Agricultural Research Management) in the United Kingdom will lead a team of community development experts to support 300 women farmers in Ethiopia to access and use existing technologies such as weeders and seed drills that substantially reduce the labor intensity of growing maize and sorghum. There are many cultural and social barriers that have prevented widespread adoption of new technologies in these settings, particularly for women. To overcome these barriers, they will use a holistic approach, educating communities and local government to promote cultural and social acceptance of the technologies. They will also work with the women's groups to support trial, use and financing, and with local small-medium enterprises for manufacturing and maintenance.

Cause Generation: A Platform to Define a Generation's Cause

Tony MorainOgilvy Public RelationsSan Francisco, California, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Communicating About Aid
15 Apr 2013

Tony Morain of Ogilvy in the U.S. will develop and launch an online platform for university student teams to campaign for their chosen development challenges. The platform will allow the teams to generate a “profile page” and develop a strategy for communicating success with the aid of proven communication tools and access to relevant resources, including case studies of effective communication strategies. Team voting will be used to select a winning campaign to support, which will be provided with funding. The aim is to empower young people with the ability to identify the major development challenges of their generation, and educate them to communicate the effectiveness of aid.

Ultra-Low-Cost Loa Loa Paper Diagnostic Device

Andrew StecklUniversity of CincinnatiCincinnati, Ohio, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
15 Apr 2013

Andrew Steckl and Giovanni Pauletti of the University of Cincinnati in the U.S. will develop a paper-based urine test for the rapid non-invasive detection of the filarial Roundworm Loa loa, which causes the painful skin and eye disease loaisis, commonly found in western and central Africa. Current diagnostic approaches are invasive, involving visual detection of larvae in tissue or blood samples. The approach here utilizes the potential effect of parasite-released hormones found in the urine of infected individuals on the viscosity of animal blood spotted onto filter paper. The diagnostic test will be easy to perform and is projected to be inexpensive to manufacture.

Participatory Neglected Tropical Disease Detection and Response System

Bebe SyllaAmerican Friends of GuineaHouston, TX, Texas, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Neglected Tropical Diseases
15 Apr 2013

Bebe Sylla and a team at American Friends of Guinea in the U.S. will use Short Message Service (SMS) and mobile laboratory technologies in rural Guinea to improve the identification of and response to neglected tropical diseases. Rapid and accurate response to the emergence of parasitic infections is critical for reducing transmission cycles, but particularly difficult in rural areas. They will introduce a community-based surveillance system where residents are taught how to recognize symptoms of several prevalent parasite infections, and how to report them to a mobile laboratory using SMS. The mobile laboratory is an all-terrain vehicle carrying necessary laboratory equipment that can mediate between the rural community and hospitals and health clinics to improve diagnosis and treatment.

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