76 Great Ideas

Oct 21st, 2009 2:30 PM UTC
By Rena Pacheco-Theard

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced today the 76 grant recipients of $100,000 each to pursue research on inventive ideas for improving health in developing countries. This marks the third round of the foundation’s Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative to promote innovation in global health, with the belief that, “One bold idea. That’s all it takes.”

Here’s more from the Gates Foundation’s press release:

“Some of the biggest stumbling blocks in global health are now being overcome with promising new vaccines and treatments,” said Dr. Tachi Yamada, president of the Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program. “Grand Challenges Explorations will continue to fill the pipeline with possibilities and hopefully produce a breakthrough idea that could save untold numbers of lives.”

“Newly-funded projects include efforts to develop a paper cup that turns TB-positive sputum samples a bright orange, use a peptide found in scorpions to block development of the malaria parasite, and adapt a protein that parasites use to seal their egg cases as a “sticky coating” for intranasal vaccines.”

TAGS: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, ONE, Policy News