The foundation supports scientific research to “enable” and accelerate progress against the foundation’s priority health conditions. Specifically, the foundation funds research to develop critical technologies in the following areas, detailed below:
- Transforming technologies to achieve scientific breakthroughs.
- Platform technologies to enable new diagnostic approaches suitable for developing country settings.
- Targeted cellular and molecular studies to help develop new health tools related to the foundation’s priority diseases and health conditions.
Transforming Technologies
For many of the diseases that significantly contribute to global health inequities, current technologies and scientific knowledge are inadequate. As a result of the extraordinary scientific advances of recent decades — in such diverse fields as physical science, chemistry, and biology — the world is poised to make rapid progress in the development and implementation of strategies that have the potential to transform the world’s response to global health problems.
To achieve these breakthroughs, the foundation supports the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative, an effort to develop solutions to scientific and technological problems that, if solved, could lead to important advances against diseases of the developing world. The initiative is currently focused on 14 scientific and technological challenges in areas including: immunization technology; vaccine immunology; vector control; nutrition; avoidance of drug resistance; cure of latent and chronic infection; and measurement of disease and health status.
Platform Technologies to Improve Diagnostics
Underlying all health care tools — including therapeutic products, vaccines and other preventive tools — are “platform” technologies that define and facilitate their use. For example, immunochromatography is a technology platform that has enabled the development of affordable, easy-to-use, dipstick-format diagnostic tools.
The lack of accurate, affordable and accessible diagnostic tests significantly impedes global health efforts. For example, there is no diagnostic test to identify the underlying causes of acute lower respiratory infection, inhibiting efforts to deliver timely and effective treatment for the leading cause of disability-adjusted life years lost in the developing world. Standard diagnostic tests used in the treatment of HIV/AIDS are costly, complex, and poorly suited to resource-limited settings.
The foundation issues RFPs to support research efforts to create diagnostic technology platforms and tools that enable improved prevention, treatment, and surveillance in developing country settings. Specifically, the foundation supports projects that:
- Effectively prioritize and communicate diagnostic needs.
- Discover new diagnostic technology platforms in situations where diagnostic needs cannot be met by the application or improvement of existing technologies.
Targeted Cellular and Molecular Studies
Scientific inquiry has historically involved the formulation of individual questions and related scientific experiments. However, key advances over the past 15 years — including the systematic mapping of the human genome — have led to a shift in scientific thinking. Based on a systematic identification of gaps in existing scientific knowledge, researchers are increasingly engaging in strategic, time-limited, and goal-oriented projects to speed and inform the development of new health tools. Unlike the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative (see Transforming Technologies above), which seeks to achieve fundamental breakthroughs in technology and science, the projects below involve using currently available technologies to advance global health.
The foundation issues RFPs to support the systematic evaluation of sets of genes, proteins, and cellular pathways to determine their potential role in contributing to the development of new vaccines, diagnostics, and drugs for the foundation’s priority diseases and conditions.
Key approaches that have not been adequately used to fill current gaps in knowledge in applied science for diseases of the developing world include:
- Applied “genomics”: Current drug, vaccine and diagnostic development efforts primarily focus on pursuing candidates that are already in the product pipeline. These efforts, while valuable, are not based on a systematic evaluation of all possible options, meaning that products that emerged are often “accidents” that may not represent the most scientifically viable approach.
- Population genetics: Systematic efforts are needed to measure genetic selection to determine how best to design drugs and vaccines to discourage the emergence of resistance, and to discover how genetics affects the efficacy of drugs and other interventions.
- Applied immunology: Systematic approaches are needed to discover and catalogue adjuvants to control immune responses, measure human immune responses to guide vaccine design, and define biological signs that identify early or latent infection.