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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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"Bulletin Board" For Broadcasting Vaccine Supply/Demand

Arun RamanujapuramLogistimoBangalore, , India
Grand Challenges Explorations
Immunization Systems
5 Apr 2012

Arun Ramanujapuram of Logistimo, Inc. in India proposes to develop a mobile-phone based "bulletin-board" for capturing and broadcasting availability and demand information for vaccines and medicines. By bringing real-time visibility to these essential goods, stock can be appropriately redistributed to areas of need, and waste can be reduced.

"Coffee Ring Stain" Diagnostics for Malaria

David WrightVanderbilt UniversityNashville, Tennessee, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Diagnostics
1 Nov 2009

David Wright of Vanderbilt University in the U.S. will develop a new low-cost diagnostic tool in which a droplet of malaria-infected blood deposited on a glass slide will, based on fluid dynamics, leave a ring-like pattern as the blood evaporates. The slide will be prepared with a solution that will interact with a particular protein of the malaria parasite to visualize this "coffee ring stain," allowing for easy interpretation and ready diagnosis.

0.70%

Jack McPartlandFuture Buro Pty LtdSydney, New South Wales, Australia
Grand Challenges Explorations
Communicating About Aid
3 Oct 2012

Jack McPartland of Future Buro in Australia will work to turn the figure "0.7%" – which is the United Nations target for aid donations from the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of developed countries – into a brand that can be communicated to tell the story about the proportionally small amount of financial resources needed to make an impact in the developing world. After branding is created, Future Buro will work to secure partnerships to facilitate donations of 0.7% of incomes, budgets, and media space to expand the reach of targeted communications about the positive impact of foreign aid.

4°C Simple Passive Vaccine Storage Device

Keith BartlettTrue EnergyTywyn Gwynedd, Wales, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges Explorations
Immunization Systems
8 Oct 2012

Keith Bartlett of True Energy in the United Kingdom will work with stakeholders in the immunization community to create a prototype vaccine storage device that uses the properties of water density to maintain vaccines at 4°C during the "last mile" of the cold chain. A water container that maintains the liquid at a steady temperature of 4°C will be in contact with the vaccine storage area, preventing temperature fluctuations that can damage or destroy vaccines.

A Biotic Stress Sensor Printed on Maize Leaves

Hideaki TsutsuiUniversity of California, RiversideRiverside, California, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Protecting Crop Plants
1 May 2012

Hideaki Tsutsui of the University of California, Riverside in the U.S. will develop a low-cost stamp to directly print biosensors on maize leaves for colorimetric detection of biotic stresses. The strategy is to develop an immunochromatographic assay using microneedle probes while printing an easily-read color-change detector.

A Buddy Program for Immunisation System Managers

Ben GilbertUniversity of CanberraCanberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Grand Challenges Explorations
Immunization Systems
24 Oct 2012

Ben Gilbert and Andrew Brown of the University of Canberra in Australia will develop a regional support network for medical supply managers in Pacific Island countries that can help them to better apply the formal training they received to manage vaccine supply systems. By engaging them in a buddy support system, Gilbert and Brown hope to empower these managers to overcome cultural, educational, social and historical factors that hinder effective management styles, and help them operate supply systems that are more responsive to immunization challenges in those developing countries.

A Device for Self-Sampling of Blood for Infectious Disease

Ian MatthewsCardiff UniversityCardiff, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges Explorations
Global Health Solutions
11 Apr 2012

Ian Matthews of Cardiff University in the United Kingdom proposes to develop a self-sampling micro-needle patch device for the collection of small volumes of blood. Micro-needles will be fabricated using Deep Reactive Ion Etching. The device will permit non-refrigerated transport of collected blood for subsequent assays for diagnosis of infectious disease.

A Diagostic Test for Poor Anti-TB Drug Bioavailability

Christopher VinnardDrexel UniversityPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Global Health Solutions
2 Apr 2012

Christopher Vinnard of Drexel University in the U.S. proposes to develop a low-cost point-of-care urine test that can safely and accurately identify tuberculosis patients who poorly absorb anti-TB drugs. Testing patients for inadequate drug bioavailability could enable better drug dose optimization and decrease transmission rates.

A High Throughput Mosquito Assay

Koen DecheringTropIQ Health SciencesNijmegen, Netherlands
Grand Challenges Explorations
Malaria Drugs
12 Oct 2012

Koen Dechering of TropIQ Health Sciences in the Netherlands is developing a high-throughput functional assay to identify new compounds that specifically block transmission of the malaria parasites to their vector hosts, which is a difficult stage to target, and to test candidate drugs. The assay incorporates luciferase- expressing parasites, which emit light as they develop in the mosquito midgut, along with barcoded chemical libraries. In Phase I, they tested several barcoding strategies and identified a bacterium that could be genetically modified to carry a unique barcode for identifying hit compounds selected in the screen. They also developed the luminescent reporter parasite to track transmission. In Phase II, they will further develop the assay for higher throughput, and screen compounds from the Tres Cantos Antimalarial Set and the MMV Validation, Malaria and Pathogen boxes. They will also use the assay to characterize the mechanisms of action of other candidate transmission-blocking compounds.

A Lab-on-Mobile-Device Platform for Seed Testing

Donald CooperMobile Assay IncBoulder, Colorado, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Protecting Crop Plants
15 Oct 2012

Donald Cooper of Mobile Assay Inc. in the U.S. will develop a low-cost, highly sensitive smartphone-based platform that employs phone cameras to image and amplify signals from immunoassay rapid test strips to detect Botrytis and aflatoxin infection in seeds or soil. Connecting phone data to a cloud server would allow farmers to monitor seed and crop quality and enable the development of regional preventative strategies.

A Lexicon of HIV-RNA Interactions

Alice TelesnitskyUniversity of MichiganAnn Arbor, Michigan, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Drug Resistance
1 May 2009

Alice Telesnitsky of the University of Michigan in the U.S. seeks to define and characterize HIV interactions with host RNA. The team will attempt to determine whether disrupting or mimicking essential interactions with host RNAs may lead to antiviral strategies to which HIV cannot readily develop resistance.

A Low-Cost Cooling Device in Neonatal Encephalopathy

Sudhin ThayyilUniversity College LondonLondon, United Kingdom
Grand Challenges Explorations
Global Health Solutions
9 Oct 2012

Sudhin Thayyil of the University College London in the United Kingdom, along with Seetha Shankaran of Wayne State University in the U.S. and Balraj Guhan of Calicut Medical College in India, will develop and validate a low-cost, low-technology whole body cooling device that operates on a proven servo-controlled algorithm with minimal supervision. This device could reduce death and disability resulting from neonatal encephalopathy in developing countries where expensive cooling equipment and trained healthcare providers are scarce.

A Low-Cost Phonogram Device for Screening Fetal Wellbeing

Ahsan KhandokerKhalifa UniversityAbu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Grand Challenges Explorations
Global Health Solutions
11 Oct 2012

Ahsan Khandoker of Khalifa University in the United Arab Emirates will build a low-cost, non-invasive abdominal phonogram device that can be used on a mobile phone to assess sounds that indicate fetal well being such as heart rate and body movement. The device will employ a software algorithm to extract fetal noises in an acoustic signal from maternal and environmental noises, allowing health care workers in remote locations to conduct obstetric assessments without expensive or invasive equipment.

A Microbial Platform for the Biosynthesis of New Drugs

Christina SmolkeStanford UniversityStanford, California, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Synthetic Biology
30 Mar 2012

Christina Smolke of Stanford University in the U.S. will develop synthetic biology platforms to improve the scale and efficiency of microbial systems used to discover, develop, and produce drugs based on natural products. Such new biosynthesis approaches could lead to new and less expensive drugs for global health.

A Microencapsulation Technique to Target Desert Locust

Ravi DurvasulaBiomedical Research Institute of New MexicoAlbuquerque, New Mexico, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Protecting Crop Plants
1 Oct 2012

Ravi Durvasula of the Biomedical Research Institute of New Mexico in the U.S. is developing biopolymers to encapsulate and protect fungal biopesticides, which are used to kill desert locusts that destroy crops in Africa. The polymer will not only shield the biopesticides from harsh environmental conditions such as UV radiation and heat but will also be formulated to release its contents upon contact with the insect.

A Mobile Cloud System to Achieve Universal Vaccination

Alain LabriqueJohns Hopkins UniversityBaltimore, Maryland, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Immunization Systems
18 Apr 2012

Alain Labrique of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the U.S. will develop and field test in rural Bangladesh a cloud-based mobile phone system that will allow for universal access to vaccination records, send vaccine reminders and messaging, and provide incentives to parents and health care workers via a phone application. This new strategy could increase the reach, coverage, and public acceptance of immunization.

A New Strategy for Resistant and More Nutritious Rice

Aymeric GoyerOregon State UniversityCorvallis, Oregon, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Protecting Crop Plants
17 Oct 2012

Aymeric Goyer of Oregon State University and Pamela Ronald of the University of California, Davis in the U.S. will develop rice plants that accumulate higher levels of thiamine (vitamin B1) to test the theory that boosting thiamine enhances the plant's resistance to disease. This strategy could lead to crops that can not only resist two devastating pathogens, Xanthomonas oryzae and Magnaporthe grisea, and lead to higher yields, but also produce rice of higher nutritional value.

A New Tool for Anti-Malarial Target Gene Validation

Philip ShawNational Center for Genetic Engineering and BiotechnologyPathumthani, Thailand
Grand Challenges Explorations
Malaria Eradication
5 Oct 2009

Philip J. Shaw of Thailand's National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology will seek to identify potential drug targets and vaccine antigens in the malaria parasite using a novel technology to reduce specific gene expression. By fusing a natural genetic “riboswitch” onto gene targets, the team will attempt to attenuate gene expression and thereby determine gene function.

A New Way to Prevent HIV Infection During Breastfeeding

David SokalFamily Health InternationalDurham, North Carolina, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
HIV Infection
1 May 2009

David Sokal of Family Health International in the U.S., with colleagues at Cambridge and Drexel Universities, will develop and test low-cost filters coated with safe microbicides that can be inserted into tips of nipple shields to prevent HIV transmission during breastfeeding.

A Non-Pathogenic Chimeric THLV-1/HIV-1 Viral Genome as a Model to Study Superinfection Restriction

Kuan-Teh JeangNational Institutes of HealthBethesda, Maryland, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
HIV Infection
1 May 2009

Kuan-Teh Jeang of the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. will investigate whether cells infected by one virus become resistant to infection from other viruses, and if this viral interference can confer protection against HIV. The team will develop an attenuated virus to test whether over-expression of viral envelope proteins within cells can confer resistance to further HIV infection.

A Novel Approach of Creating an Attenuated Pneumonia Vaccine

Vijay PancholiOhio State University Research FoundationColumbus, Ohio, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Vaccines
1 Nov 2009

Vijay Pancholi of The Ohio State University Research Foundation in the U.S. will attempt to attenuate the S. pneumonia bacteria by altering export of the GAPDH enzyme, a function thought to be essential to the bacteria's survival. Preventing export of this key enzyme will decrease bacterial virulence, allowing the attenuated strain to be used for development an affordable live vaccine for pneumococcal pneumonia.

A Novel Bactericidal Protein Found in Milk

Anders HakanssonThe Research Foundation of the State University of New YorkAlbany, New York, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Drug Resistance
1 May 2009

Anders Hakansson of the University of Buffalo in the U.S. has identified a protein from human breast milk (Human Alpha Lactalbumin Made Lethal to Tumor cell, or HAMLET), that kills respiratory tract bacteria. Hakansson will attempt to understand the mechanism by which HAMLET binds to and kills pheumococci without the bacteria developing resistance.

A Novel Effective Vaccine Against Cholera

Michael LebensUniversity of Gothenburg Institute for Vaccine ResearchGothenburg, Sweden
Grand Challenges Explorations
Vaccines
5 Oct 2009

Michael Lebens of the University of Gothenburg Institute for Vaccine Research in Sweden proposes to develop a new oral cholera vaccine using a single cholera strain that expresses antigens for both the Inaba and Ogawa serotypes and produces cholera toxin subunits that act as an adjuvant to stimulate mucosal immune activity. In this project’s Phase I research, Lebens and his team successfully generated potential vaccine candidate strains that express both Ogawa and Inaba type antigens simultaneously. They also demonstrated in an animal model that oral immunization with these bacteria in a killed formulation elicited immune responses similar to those obtained by vaccination with currently licensed oral killed whole-cell cholera vaccines. In Phase II, he will further improve these strains by inducing them to express an accompanying adjuvant and conduct immunogenicity analyses and other work to prepare for a Phase I trial.

A Novel Vaccination Strategy for Cutaneous Leishmaniasis

Jesus ValenzuelaNational Institutes of HealthBethesda, Maryland, United States
Grand Challenges Explorations
Infectious Diseases
1 May 2009

Because Leishmania is transmitted to humans when sand flies feed on humans, Jesus Valenzuela of the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. proposes to develop a novel vaccine against salivary proteins of sand flies with the aim to induce a strong immune response against the parasite.

A Novel Virulence-Associated Malaria Drug Target

Paul GilsonBurnet InstituteMelbourne, Victoria, Australia
Grand Challenges Explorations
Malaria Eradication
1 Nov 2009

Paul Gilson of Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health in Australia will study the function of a newly discovered malaria parasite mechanism that exports proteins into host red blood cells in an effort to develop compounds that block this transfer and inhibit parasite growth.

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