The Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative is focused on engaging creative minds to work on scientific and technological breakthroughs for the world’s most pressing health problems. Grand Challenges Explorations is a grant program within the initiative that fosters innovative, early-stage research to expand the pipeline of ideas that can lead to those much needed global health solutions.

Grand Challenges Explorations Seeks Bold Ideas for Next Round of $100,000 Grants

Researchers from all fields and all levels of experience who can offer a fresh perspective on the global health fight are encouraged to apply for a Grand Challenges Explorations grant, which awards $100,000 to test early-stage projects. Topics for this round include:

• Design New Approaches to Cure HIV Infection
• Create the Next Generation of Sanitation Technologies
• The Poliovirus Endgame: Create ways to Accelerate, Sustain and Monitor Eradication
• Create New Technologies to Improve the Health of Mothers and Newborns
• Create Low-Cost Cell Phone-Based Applications for Priority Global Health Diseases

Applications are being accepted until November 2, 2010 at 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time.

Currently, there are more than 340 researchers from 34 countries using Grand Challenges Explorations grants to test their innovative ideas. Featured below are some examples of these projects. For a complete list of grants awarded, visit the Grand Challenges Explorations web site.

	Testing Nutritional Strategies to Prevent Diarrheal Diseases Better nutrition can help prevent diarrheal diseases which kill nearly 1.7 million children annually. David Mills of the University of California, Davis is using his Grand Challenges Explorations grant to test whether carbohydrates called olgiosaccharides, which are found in cow’s milk, can boost nutrition in children who have been weaned. While human milk contains oligosaccharides that have been shown to protect breast-feeding infants, older children could benefit from these carbohydrates to prevent intestinal diseases.
	Using a Common Oral Bacteria to Deliver Vaccines In an effort to devise a needle-free vaccine, Youngnim Choi of Seoul National University in Korea is using his Explorations grant to study whether a common bacteria often found in human mouths can be used to deliver vaccines under the tongue.  This bacteria has the ability to invade surface cells, providing a vehicle to introduce vaccines directly to mucosal immune cells in the mouth..
	Working with Villagers to Treat Asymptomatic Carriers of Malaria Explorations grantee Sungano Mharakurwa of the Malaria Institute in Zambia is testing a simple, but potentially very effective malaria control program by finding asymptomatic carriers of the malaria parasite. During the dry season when malaria transmission is low, Mharakurwa will partner with village community workers to collect saliva samples with a simple, non-invasive diagnostic test. These samples will identify asymptomatic carriers, who can then be treated to eliminate the parasite before it can be transmitted when the rainy season comes.