BETHESDA, Md. -- The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), together with the Fogarty International Center (FIC), today announced the launch of a five-year study to investigate the linkages between malnutrition and intestinal infections and their effects on children in the developing world, funded by a grant of nearly $30 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the FNIH. An estimated twenty million children under the age of five are severely malnourished, leaving them more vulnerable to illness and early death, according to the World Health Organization.