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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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RNA Phage-Mediated Microbiome Engineering

David WangWashington University in St. LouisSt. Louis, Missouri, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Bacteriophage
1 Nov 2015

David Wang of Washington University in St. Louis in the U.S. will evaluate specific RNA bacteriophage (viruses that infect bacteria) as therapeutics to modulate the bacterial communities in inflammatory conditions such as environmental enteropathy. To date, only DNA phage have been explored as therapeutics despite RNA phage being able to kill a broader range of bacteria. They will test the effect of two prototypical RNA phage on the gut microbe population in a mouse model of intestinal inflammation. They will also use stool samples from children with environmental enteropathy to identify novel resistance genes that block the bactericidal effect of the RNA phage, which will help gauge their value as potential therapeutics.

Artificial Mosquito Diet for New Vector Control Approaches

Dawn WessonTulane UniversityNew Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Mosquito Control
1 Nov 2015

Dawn Wesson and Sam Jameson of Tulane University in the U.S. will develop an artificial meal for mosquitoes based on algae as a protein source that can be freeze dried and stored in blister packs, and refine their reusable feeding system. Mosquitoes are currently laboratory reared using expensive and difficult to obtain mammalian blood to ensure adequate numbers of offspring for studying. They proposed that a spirulina (Arthrospira platensis) would be an ideal candidate for feeding mosquitoes due to it being a complex protein source, easy to mass produce, and dark in color, which is a feeding cue for mosquitoes. They will supplement it with insect juvenile hormone, which stimulates egg production, sugar and salt, and test its palatability and effect on egg production in a number of different mosquito species using iterations of their meal delivery system compared to human blood.

New Unpowered Attract-Diagnose-Kill Surveillance Traps

Bradley WillenbergUniversity of Central Florida Research FoundationOrlando, Florida, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Mosquito Control
1 Nov 2015

Bradley Willenberg at the University of Central Florida Research Foundation in the U.S. will design a simple trap that works without electricity to help survey local vector mosquito populations and uses a color change to signal the presence of human disease-causing pathogens. They will develop a formulation based on toxic sugared water to attract specific types of mosquitoes to the trap. The sugar water will be mixed with a stable short nucleic acid sequence known as an aptamer, which they have designed to bind to the chikungunya virus, conjugated to gold nanoparticles. When a mosquito drinks the solution, its abdomen will turn blue if it is carrying this virus, and red if it isn’t, for an easy visual readout. They will test the performance of their device for attracting and killing the Aedes mosquito, and detecting the virus. Their approach could be used to detect other pathogens such as dengue virus and the malaria-causing Plasmodium parasite.

Enabling Merchant Acceptance of Mobile Money Payments in Nelamangala, India

Chrisitine YeeSmith CollegeNorthampton, Massachusetts, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Mobile Money
1 Nov 2015

Christine Yee with Darpan Bohara and Yashna Sureka of Smith College in the U.S. will develop a fingerprint scanner that can link to phone networks and banks to enable merchants to easily and quickly accept mobile money payments in India. Fingerprint identification is relatively secure and will simplify the payment process so people with different levels of literacy can use it. They will test their prototype by giving deposits to a group of students and scanners to local merchants in Nelamangala, India, and providing the associated knowledge and resources needed to use their mobile money transfer system.

Next-Gen Monitoring of Infected Mosquitos in the Field

Paul YoungUniversity of QueenslandBrisbane, Queensland, Australia
Grand Challenges Explorations
Mosquito Control
1 Nov 2015

Paul Young of the University of Queensland in Australia will monitor mosquito populations using ultra bright nanoparticles coated with selected monoclonal antibodies to detect associated microbes such as Wolbachia, coupled with a low-cost readout device. The goal is a simple to use, portable platform that can be used in the field. They will develop the assay using a range of infected mosquitoes to identify the optimal antibody and nanoparticle format for rapid and specific detection, and evaluate sensitivity.

A Low-Cost Ultrasound System for Detection of Malnutrition

Mirko ZimicUniversidad Peruana Cayetano HerediaLima, Peru
Grand Challenges Explorations
Pneumonia
1 Nov 2015

Mirko Zimic of Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Peru will develop a simple, low-cost lung ultrasound device that can automatically diagnose bacterial pneumonia and measure nutritional status in children in low-resource settings. They have developed an algorithm to detect lung infiltrates from digital ultrasound images as evidence of pneumonia in children, and have built a prototype device, which comprises an ultrasound probe connected to a laptop or smartphone for realtime analysis of the images. Visible and audio alerts are used to notify the technician of suspect regions. They will develop an additional algorithm to automatically measure anatomical parameters including rib diameter and skin thickness for predicting levels of malnutrition, and test it in a hospital in Peru. Ultimately, this will be incorporated into the ultrasound device so that both pneumonia and malnutrition can be easily diagnosed together by non-specialized health care workers.

Cow-Baited Tents as a Monitoring and Intervention Tool

Brandyce St. LaurentNational Institutes of HealthBethesda, Maryland, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Malaria Transmission
1 Nov 2015

Brandyce St. Laurent of the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. will test whether cow-baited tents can be used to monitor and control disease-causing mosquitoes in the Greater Mekong Subregion. Most Anopheles mosquitoes preferentially bite animals, but they still contribute to malaria transmission in humans, and many bite outdoors, rendering bednets and indoor repellants useless against them. They will produce low-cost tents treated with insecticide, and locally rent cows as bait. The tents will be set up in both villages and forests and the captured mosquitoes will be analyzed to evaluate the efficacy of their approach.

Measuring Change in the Decision-Making Role of Pastoral Women at the Household Level as a Result of their Financial and Social Empowerment

Kathleen ColsonThe BOMA Project, Inc.Manchester Center, Vermont, United States
Grand Challenges
Women and Girls
28 Oct 2015

Kathleen Colson of The BOMA Project, Inc. in Kenya will investigate, measure and document how participation in BOMA’s Rural Entrepreneur Access Project (REAP)—a holistic two-year program of sequenced interventions—translates to such gender-influenced outcomes as increased household financial decision-making by women, increased education opportunities for girls and increased food security and use of healthcare by the household. REAP is a high-impact poverty graduation program that addresses the geographic and socio-economic context of the arid and semi-arid lands of Africa, where the harsh effects of climate change and endemic extreme poverty persistently undermine the well-being of women and children. The project provides ultra-poor Kenyan women cash grants, business skills training, mentoring and the opportunity to set up their own business to help lift their families out of poverty. Giving women more power over household spending tends to lead to improved family health care and education. They will recruit 750 women living in extreme poverty in pastoral communities to their two-year poverty graduation program. Upon these women exiting REAP, they will analyze its impact on improving the education and social standing of women and girls, and the physical and financial wellbeing of their families.

Improving Women's Access and Usage of Digital Financial Services

Flora MyambaResearch on Poverty Alleviation (REPOA)Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Grand Challenges
Women and Girls
28 Oct 2015

Flora Myamba of Repoa Ltd. in Tanzania will evaluate different methods for motivating women to use mobile financial services by performing a randomized control trial in Tanzania. Access to mobile money platforms in developing countries can help alleviate poverty, but many people, particularly women, do not own a mobile phone, and if they do, it is unclear whether they will use it for financial purposes. They will recruit 2,000 low-income women in Tanzania and provide them with different types of mobile phones and data packages to determine which combination leads to the biggest uptake of digital financial services, and analyze how it improves the welfare of women.

Healthy Birth: A Prospective Study to Evaluate the Implementation and Effects of an Intervention to Improve the Quality of Maternal and Neonatal Care in Brazilian Hospitals

Maria do Carmo LealFiocruzRio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Grand Challenges Brazil
All Children Thriving
20 Oct 2015

Maria do Carmo Leal from Fiocruz in Brazil will undertake a pilot “Parto Adequado” (Adequate Birth) project to evaluate whether different health care models offered by medical institutions during pregnancy and childbirth can promote healthier births, particularly by reducing the rate of unnecessary medical procedures. These include caesarean section without clinical indication, which occur frequently in Brazil and can have negative consequences. They have selected 23 geographically dispersed hospitals for the pilot study, which will involve around 16,000 mothers. To promote good practices, they have developed three health care models that combine different numbers and types of medical staff (i.e., Doctors and nurses-midwives) to be involved at specific stages from pregnancy to birth. These will be offered to hospitals for implementation over 18 months. They will then analyse the degree of implementation of the models, and their effects on the type of birth, adoption of good practices, and hospital costs after two and three years. They will also interview the mothers and health care workers to evaluate acceptability of the different models.

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