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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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Prevention of Maternal Death by Improving Iron Status of Women Through Iron Fortification of Tea

Levente DiosadyUniversity of TorontoToronto, Ontario, Canada
Grand Challenges for Development
Saving Lives at Birth
16 Dec 2013

Iron deficiency is a major contributor to maternal death. Improving the health of women through iron fortification of a universally consumed food vehicle will result in significant saving of lives at birth. Tea is universally consumed in South Asia; however, iron forms complexes in tea, reducing bioavailability, and thus thwarting earlier fortification attempts. Our approach will make tea viable as an iron fortification vehicle. We will develop spray-encapsulated iron premix that will be attached to tea leaves, and released into hot water during brewing, without altering the tea's sensory attributes. Iron will be encapsulated in enteric coating to prevent formation of non-bioavailable tannin complex in the stomach, the coating will dissolve in the small intestines to expose a high bioavailability self-emulsifying iron delivery system. Our innovations are: (1) the encapsulation/microemulsion approach which protects iron in the stomach and enhances absorption in the lower GI, and (2) using tea as the fortification vehicle which will ease adoption because no user behavior change will be required.

Augmented Infant Resuscitator (AIR)

Data SantorinoMbarara University of Science and TechnologyMbarara, Uganda
Grand Challenges for Development
Saving Lives at Birth
16 Dec 2013

Effective resuscitation could reduce intrapartum related neonatal deaths by 30%, and deaths from prematurity by 10%, creating the potential to save 347,200 babies annually. However, one in five trained healthcare professionals (HCPs) fail to perform the resuscitation technique correctly, and those that do, often experience a rapid decline in proficiency. Our Augmented Infant Resuscitator's advanced training capabilities, instant feedback mechanism, and objective self-audit and retraining abilities will maximize and sustain gains from effective resuscitation. The AIR prototype provides instant feedback to users about effective ventilation. This is measured using inexpensive instrumentation that calculates ventilation rate, air volume and air pressure delivered by the bag-valve-mask (BVM) across the resuscitation face-mask. These parameters correlate with the four most common mistakes that result in ineffective resuscitation: 1) Failed seal at the face-mask interface resulting in failure to inflate the lungs; 2) Blocked airways; and 3) Wrong ventilation frequency 4) Insufficient/shallow lung inflation. Each of these mistakes can cause death or brain damage. AIR also records performance on an internal memory card for future feedback, improving HCPs training by identifying persistent gaps in technique.

HIST-BIRTH: Innovative and Rapid Point-of-Care Histone Test Strips for Early Diagnosis of Sepsis in Pregnancy and Childbirth.

Federico Pallardo CalatayudUniversidad de ValenciaValencia, Spain
Grand Challenges for Development
Saving Lives at Birth
16 Dec 2013

We propose to develop a rapid, low-cost and effective method for detecting sepsis in early stages. We will take advantage of the potential of histones to be sensitive and effective biomarkers for sepsis, and of the versatility, simplicity and low-cost of test strips. The diagnostic test will be simple, comfortable, easy to interpret and low-cost for prognosis/early diagnosis of sepsis based on histone expression. The test can be used by non-technical experts in any hospital or health center worldwide, though it has been designed intentionally for low-resource countries. Proof-of-concept of this diagnostic test will be performed in Uganda, in order to analyze benefits and reduction in mortality of pregnant women and infants in that country. The innovative combination of histones and strips make this diagnostic test a significant improvement over the inefficient methods currently used for sepsis diagnosis, such serum lactate measurement, microbiological sampling, etc.

JustMilk - Development of an Infant Nipple Shield Drug Delivery System Used During Breastfeeding

Nigel SlaterUniversity of CambridgeCambridge, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges for Development
Saving Lives at Birth
16 Dec 2013

We propose to develop a low-cost Nipple Shield Delivery System (NSDS) to administer drugs or nutrients to breastfeeding infants via easily disintegrating tablets within a modified nipple shield. A wide-range of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) could be delivered to infants using the NSDS such as antibiotics, antimalarials, antiretrovirals, vitamins, nutrients, and probiotics. Use of the NSDS would empower a breastfeeding mother during the early postnatal period by allowing her to personally administer medicines in a natural setting. This system can provide a novel method for accurately administering drugs and nutrients to breastfeeding infants.

A Low-Cost, Electricity-Free Oxygen Concentrator

Bryn SobottUniversity of MelbourneMelbourne, Victoria, Australia
Grand Challenges for Development
Saving Lives at Birth
16 Dec 2013

Our proposal will provide this life-saving treatment to isolated, extremely resource poor people by obviating the need for electricity. This will be achieved by applying recently developed hydrological engineering approaches to extract the pressure differential required for the adsorption process exploited by Oxygen concentrators. This project aims to develop and test an electricity free Oxygen concentrator suitable for a developing world health facility. This represents a major paradigm shift, as to-date the problem has been interpreted as how to supply electricity to an Oxygen concentrator. In comparison with solar and generator based approaches the prototype will require significantly less capital cost and maintenance. Further, construction out of locally available components will empower the community to independently and sustainably access this life-saving treatment.

Que Vivan Las Madres: Scaling Up an Integrated Approach to Reduce Maternal and Perinatal Mortality in Northern Guatemala

Edgar KestlerCentro de Investigación Epidemiológica en Salud Sexual y Reproductiva (CIESAR)Guatemala City, Guatemala
Grand Challenges for Development
Saving Lives at Birth
16 Dec 2013

Guatemala has one of the highest national maternal mortality ratios in Latin America at 149 per 100,000 live births, and up to 260 per 100,000 in some northern departments. Only 31% of deliveries are attended by a skilled birth attendant. We propose to scale up an already tested innovative strategy, combining technology, service delivery, and demand creation approaches. Our collaborative effort integrates: 1) a low cost, simulation-based training program (PRONTO) using a low-tech birth simulator (PartoPants) to teach provider teams emergency management during childbirth, 2) a research-driven social marketing campaign encouraging women in the target communities to give birth in clinics rather than at home, and 3) professional midwife liaisons charged with connecting traditional birth attendants to the formal health care system. We expect that this effort will catalyze critical practice changes in maternity care, increase the proportion of births attended in clinics, improve maternal outcomes, and decrease perinatal death in indigenous Guatemalan communities.

Use of Metabolomics for the Identification and Validation of Clinical Biomarkers for Preterm Birth

José Guilherme CecattiUniversidade Estadual de CampinasCampinas, São Paulo, Brazil
Grand Challenges Brazil
Preterm Birth Burden
6 Dec 2013

José Guilherme Cecatti from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Brazil will develop a predictive algorithm to identify early in pregnancy those at increased risk of preterm birth so that if possible they can be treated. There are likely to be many causes of preterm birth, and it is a major cause of both short and long term life-threatening complications for infants. They will use existing data from 6,000 pregnancies that resulted in both term and preterm births, and perform three complementary mass spectrometry-based methods on blood taken early (around 15 weeks) in those pregnancies to identify a panel of biomarkers that can predict preterm birth. This will be combined with sociodemographic and physical data including economic status and age to generate a predictive algorithm. They will then evaluate this algorithm in a cohort of 1,150 low risk pregnant Brazilian women for its ability to identify those that go on to give birth prematurely.

Pessary Plus Progesterone to Prevent Preterm Delivery in Women With Short Cervical Length

Rodolfo de Carvalho PacagnellaUniversidade Estadual de CampinasCampinas, São Paulo, Brazil
Grand Challenges Brazil
Preterm Birth Burden
6 Dec 2013

Rodolfo de Carvalho Pacagnella from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Brazil will perform two randomized clinical trials across 15 obstetric clinics in Brazil to evaluate treatment with progesterone in the presence or absence of a cervical pessary for preventing spontaneous preterm birth. Both cervical pessary and progesterone are individually considered to be effective preventative treatments for preterm birth, which is one of the most common complications seen in pregnancy and can cause severe complications for the premature infant. The causes of preterm birth are mostly unknown, although incidence does increase with cervical shortening during the mid stages of pregnancy. They will also analyze the prevalence of a short cervix in Brazilian pregnant women, and determine how well it predicts preterm birth. Their approach to screen for cervix length and then treat high-risk individuals with the combination therapy will also be evaluated for cost-effectiveness.

Influence of the Vaginal Microbiome and Vaginal Metabolites on Cervical Remodeling and Preterm Parturition

Antonio Fernandes MoronUniversidade Federal de São PauloSão Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Grand Challenges Brazil
Preterm Birth Burden
6 Dec 2013

Antonio Fernandes Moron from the Universidade Federal de São Paulo in Brazil will investigate whether the presence of specific bacterial populations in the vagina can predict preterm birth, which could form part of an inexpensive test suitable for low resource settings. Preterm birth leads to major short- and long-term health problems for the child. The causes are largely unknown, making it hard to identify pregnant women at increased risk who need monitoring and might benefit from treatment. They hypothesize that bacterial infections in the vagina during pregnancy can alter the length, elasticity and/or thickness of the cervix, thereby triggering preterm birth. To test this, they will analyze vaginal samples from 400 pregnant women located at four urban care centers throughout Brazil to identify bacteria and selected proteins that associate with specific cervical alterations detectable by ultrasound, and determine their association with preterm birth.

Senses of Birth: Effects of an Interactive Exhibit in Changing the Perception About Labor and Birth With Community Mobilization for Reducing Excessive Caesarean Sections and Iatrogenic Prematurity In Brazil

Bernardo Jefferson de OliveiraUniversidade Federal de Minas GeraisBelo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Grand Challenges Brazil
Preterm Birth Burden
6 Dec 2013

Bernardo Jefferson de Oliveira from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil will develop an interactive exhibit including images, audio, games, and theatre to encourage natural childbirth and perform a pilot study to evaluate its effect on changing public perception of labor and birth. They aim to reduce unnecessary cesarean sections in Brazil where the incidence of preterm births, which can cause severe disabilities, has been increasing. This is thought to be due in part to the negative perception of normal birth and the assumption that cesarean sections are safer and more convenient. The exhibit will focus on producing sensations and emotions to teach participants about the experience, risks and benefits of both cesarean section and natural childbirth. They will present the exhibit over 12 months in three major cities, which should reach around 30,000 people, and use interviews and questionnaires before and after participants visit the exhibit to measure its effect on knowledge and attitudes.

Breastfeeding in Premature Infants: Impact of Bfhi in Neonatal Units

Carmen Gracinda Silvan ScochiUniversidade de São PauloSão Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Grand Challenges Brazil
Preterm Birth Burden
6 Dec 2013

Carmen Gracinda Silvan Scochi from the Universidade de São Paulo in Brazil will encourage mothers of preterm infants in Brazil to exclusively breastfeed them for the first six months to better protect them against infections and optimize their growth and neurodevelopment. The incidence of preterm births in Brazil is increasing, and causes multiple short and long-term complications. Exclusive breastfeeding can limit some of these complications but is particularly challenging with preterm infants due to their incomplete development and the need for hospitalization, as well as there being practical and emotional difficulties for the mother. The existing WHO/UNICEF global program for promoting exclusive breastfeeding has been adapted specifically for preterm infants and involves better educating medical staff so that they provide the practical and emotional support to encourage exclusive breastfeeding. They will establish the program in 10 hospitals/maternity units across Brazil and evaluate its effect on the numbers of preterm infants being exclusively breastfed.

A Randomized Clinical Trial With Oral Magnesium Supplementation in Pregnancy

Joao Guilherme Bezerra AlvesInstituto de Medicina Integral Professor Fernando FigueiraRecife, Pernambuco, Brazil
Grand Challenges Brazil
Preterm Birth Burden
6 Dec 2013

Joao Guilherme Bezerra Alves from the Instituto de Medicina Integral Professor Fernando Figueira in Brazil will perform a randomized controlled trial to assess whether a daily oral supplement of magnesium citrate can prevent placental vascular disease, which can lead to preterm birth. Placental vascular disease restricts the flow of nutrients to the fetus and can cause growth restriction and maternal hypertensive disorders. Magnesium is known to promote placental vascular flow, and magnesium citrate is safe, inexpensive and easily absorbed in the body. They will perform a clinical trial in two large hospitals in Brazil in which 3,000 pregnant women will be offered a daily magnesium supplement or a placebo control starting from up to 20 weeks of gestation and continuing until birth. The effect on various outcomes including placental function, preterm labor, and mother and child health will be evaluated.

Quarenta Semana: Innovative Intervention in the Prenatal Care for Reduction of Prematurity

Jose Maria de Andrade LopesInstituto Fernandes Figueira - FiocruzRio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Grand Challenges Brazil
Preterm Birth Burden
6 Dec 2013

Jose Maria de Andrade Lopes of the Instituto Fernandes Figueira - Fiocruz in Brazil will conduct a randomized study to evaluate “Quarenta Semana,” which is a program designed to remove risk factors associated with preterm births in Rio de Janeiro. The preterm birth rate in Brazil is amongst the highest globally. Some known risk factors for preterm birth include limited access to healthcare services, maternal social and health factors such as diabetes, and the quality of prenatal care. They will train pregnant women to act as health advocates who encourage women to seek prenatal care in their first trimester. They will also establish social support groups to help reduce stress and offer support throughout pregnancy, and implement a checklist for providers and patients to increase the quality of prenatal care. The effect of these approaches on preterm birth rates will be evaluated.

Elaboration of a Lyophilized Human Milk Concentrate To Be Used To Feed Very Low Birth Weight Preterm Newborns

José Simon CameloUniversidade Federal de São PauloSão Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Grand Challenges Brazil
Preterm Birth Burden
6 Dec 2013

Jose Simon Camelo Junior from the Universidade Federal de São Paulo in Brazil will test a method for producing a lyophilized human milk concentrate for feeding very low birth weight newborns that can be implemented in developing countries. Very small premature babies of less than 1,500 grams require large quantities of proteins, calories, minerals, micronutrients and electrolytes to survive and thrive. However, breast milk alone is not concentrated enough. Supplements derived from cow’s milk have been used but appear to inhibit particularly the immunological quality of human breast milk, which helps block infection. Human milk additives have now also been tested and show promising results, but they are prohibitively expensive to produce in developing countries. They will use a simple method involving evaporation, centrifugation and lyophilization to produce a concentrated form of human milk that can be implemented in Brazilian milk banks. The milk product will be evaluated for stability and safety and for nutritional content to ensure it contains adequate concentrations of essential nutrients within manageable volumes to support very low weight newborns.

Improved Method of Screening for Preeclampsia

Renato Luis da Silveira XimenesUniversidade Federal de São PauloSão Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Grand Challenges Brazil
Preterm Birth Burden
6 Dec 2013

Renato Luis da Silveira Ximenes of Universidade Federal de São Paulo in Brazil will conduct a randomized controlled trial to evaluate whether a daily low dose of aspirin taken from early in pregnancy can prevent preeclampsia and thereby reduce the rate of preterm birth. Preterm birth is a leading cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality, and preeclampsia is a major cause of maternal death. The combination of several biomarkers such as serum levels of placental growth factor and biophysical measurements such as mean arterial pressure can now quite well identify women at higher risk of developing preeclampsia already at 11-14 weeks gestation, providing an early window of opportunity to treat them. And a recent meta-analysis suggested that the administration of low dose aspirin before 16 weeks could reduce the rate of preeclampsia by fifty percent. They hypothesize that the earlier treatment is started, the more effective it will be. They will screen pregnant Brazilian women at 11–14 weeks to identify those at risk of developing early preeclampsia and test whether low dose aspirin can prevent it.

Premature Births in São Paulo: A Spatial Approach

Silvia Regina Dias Medici SaldivaInstituto de SaúdeSão Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Grand Challenges Brazil
Preterm Birth Burden
6 Dec 2013

Silvia Regina Dias Medici Saldiva from the Instituto de Saúde in Brazil will determine whether and which physical, social and cultural aspects of urban environments can increase the incidence of preterm birth. Prematurity is a major cause of childhood mortality and disability, and levels are high in Brazil. Preterm birth is likely caused by combinations of factors that, particularly in urban locales, might include environmental factors such as the quality of housing, proximity to health facilities and pollution levels, which then interact with social and cultural factors. They will identify spatial clusters of premature births from 2012 in the city of São Paulo to define suitable regions for performing case-control studies. The studies will involve face-to-face interviews at selected households by trained interviewers to assess environmental and social factors such as income, education, health and sanitation. These data will be supplemented with available or modeled meterological and pollutant data, and data from tree rings, which can provide climate information as well as levels of toxins. They will then perform hierarchical modeling to identify environmental factors associated with preterm births.

ABC Transporters in Pregnancy and Preterm Labor

Tania Maria Ruffoni OrtigaUniversidade Federal do Rio de JaneiroRio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Grand Challenges Brazil
Preterm Birth Burden
6 Dec 2013

Tania Maria Ruffoni Ortiga from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil will measure the levels of so-called ABC transporters throughout pregnancy, and during normal and preterm labor, and how they are influenced by infections such as malaria and influenza, to determine whether they might increase the risk of preterm labor. ABC transporters sit in the outer membranes of cells and actively transport drugs, toxins and immune signaling molecules out of them. In this way, they regulate the immune response, hormonal signaling and the activity of drugs such as antibiotics, which become particularly important during pregnancy and labor. They will collect human intrauterine tissue at different time points during pregnancy and during cesarean delivery from hospitals in Brazil and Canada, and investigate the distribution of ABC transporters and the association with infection. They will also use a mouse model of malaria to evaluate the effect on the levels and activity of the transporters.

Association Among Fetal Microbiota, Prematurity and Preterm Morbidities

Renato Soibelmann ProcianoyUniversidade Federal do Rio Grande do SulPorto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Grand Challenges Brazil
Preterm Birth Burden
6 Dec 2013

Renato Soibelmann Procianoy from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil will analyze the association between bacterial populations in the vagina and gut of mothers in their third trimester and in the meconium of very preterm newborns, with risk of preterm delivery. It was previously assumed that microbes from the mother are first transferred to the fetus during delivery. However, it was recently shown that this could happen already in the uterus, triggering a possible immune response by the fetus that may lead to premature birth, which is a leading cause of infant morbidity and mortality. They will use 16S rRNA-based bacterial sequencing technology on around 600 samples to compare the types of bacteria present in preterm infants with that in healthy term infants in a neonatal unit in the Clinicas Hospital in Porto Alegre. They will also track the changes in bacterial composition in healthy and sick newborns during their hospital stay, to identify types of bacteria associated with specific diseases such as diarrhea. All samples will be stored in a repository for future case-controlled studies.

CassavaTech

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

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

Water Irrigation Pump Built from Automobile Components

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

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

Anemia and Women Smallholder Farmers

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

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

The Economic Burden of Human and Animals Diseases

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

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

Detection, Vaccination and Control of Brucellosis

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

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

Engineering a Biologically Inspired Condom

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

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

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

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

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

Build Interoperability Into NGO Information Repository

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

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

Determining Perceptions of Smallholder Women Farmers

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

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

A Rift Valley Fever Vaccine for Use in Humans and Animals

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

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

Transformative Tools for Women Smallholder Farmers

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

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

One House-One Health Approach to Child Growth and Development

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

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

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

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

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

Interoperable Data for Poverty Eradication

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

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

The One Health Metric: Measuring the Poverty Impacts of Disease

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

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

Stored Energy Solar Stove Technology

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

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

Nano-Beads Adjuvant for Theileria parva Vaccine

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

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

Moma's Farm

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

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

Integrated Human and Animal Vaccination Delivery

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

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

Water Catchment, Storage and Irrigation for Women Farmers

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

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

C. elegans as a Targeted Molecular Surrogate for Filarid Parasites

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

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

The Condom Applicator Pack (CAP)

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

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

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

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

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

One-Dose Vaccine That Prevents Viral Disease in Perpetuity

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

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

A Human Powered Precision Seeder

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

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

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.

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