BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has announced 104 grants of $100,000 (£64,000) each in the first round of its Grand Challenges Explorations scheme. They have been awarded to scientists from 22 countries and five continents to help lower the barriers for testing innovative ideas in global health. A selection of university-based winners are listed below; the remainder will be published shortly.
Award winner: Francois Baneyx
Institution: University of Washington
Vaccinating adjuvant core antigen shell nanoparticles (VACAS)
Award winner: Teun Bousema
Institution: Radboud University
Reducing the burden of malaria by targeting hotspots of malaria transmission (REDHOT)
Award winner: Philip Bryan
Institution: University of Maryland
Molecular machines that catalytically destroy pathogen proteins required for infection
Award winner: Jacques Derek Charlwood
Institution: University of Copenhagen
Turning houses into mosquito traps
Award winner: Cevayir Coban
Institution: Osaka University
Using TBK1, a novel molecule that controls the adjuvanticity of DNA vaccines, to improve DNA vaccine immunogenicity against malaria
Award winner: Mark Davis
Institution: Stanford University
Multiplex tetramer analysis of vaccine responses
Award winner: Matthew Davis
Institution: University of Michigan
Innovation Bridge: linking biotech breakthroughs to emerging vaccine manufacturers
Award winner: Joseph DeRisi
Institution: University of California, San Francisco
Molecular engineering of erythrotropic bacteria for treatment and prevention of human malaria
Award winner: Andrew Fire
Institution: Stanford University
Identification of small RNA molecules capable of eliciting cellular immunity during RNA virus infection
Award winner: Suzanne Fleiszig
Institution: University of California, Berkeley
The eye as a source of novel broad spectrum anti-infectives
Award winner: Brian Foy
Institution: Colorado State University
Endectocides for controlling transmission of mosquito-borne diseases
Award winner: Jorge Galan
Institution: Yale University
Development of a type III protein secretion system as a quasi-synthetic protein antigen delivery nanomachine
Award winner: Volker Gerdts
Institution: University of Saskatchewan
Novel ways of inducing early-life immunity
Award winner: Andrew Heath
Institution: University of Sheffield
DNA vaccines with very strongly enhanced potency
Award winner: Barbara Kazmierczak
Institution: Yale University
Manipulating gut flora to improve vaccine responses
Award winner: Mark Kendall
Institution: University of Queensland
Nanopatch delivery of DNA-based malaria vaccines to skin: precisely targeting the skin immune system for radically improved vaccines
Award winner: Pattamaporn Kittayapong
Institution: Mahidol University
Identification of anti-dengue viral proteins from mosquito cells co-infected with Wolbachia endosymbionts
Award winner: Hiroshi Kiyono
Institution: University of Tokyo
Novel MucoRice system for the development of cold-chain and needle/syringe-free vaccine
Award winner: Judith Klein
Institution: Carnegie Mellon University
Identification of new drug targets by linking HIV function to protein interaction pathways
Award winner: Samuel Landry
Institution: Tulane University
Engineering antigen processing for improved immunity
Award winner: Hiroyuki Matsuoka
Institution: Jichi Medical University
Production of a transgenic mosquito, as a flying syringe, to deliver protective vaccine via saliva
Award winner: Francis Nano
Institution: University of Victoria
Arctic essential genes used to create temperature-sensitive pathogens
Award winner: Christina Smolke
Institution: California Institute of Technology
Genetically encoded technologies that support the design of molecular sensing-regulatory systems for targeted disease treatment strategies
Award winner: Marka Szabolcs
Institution: Columbia University
Preventing malaria transmission via mosquito sensory damage/disorientation
Award winner: Yen Wah Tong
Institution: National University of Singapore
Molecularly imprinted polymeric nanoparticles to capture viruses in treating infectious diseases: a synthetic antibody
Award winner: Eduardo Trombetta
Institution: New York University
Stabilisation against proteolysis as a mechanism to increase the immunogenicity of protein antigens
Award winner: Ellen Vitetta
Institution: University of Texas
A new platform for making effective vaccines against pathogens that cause infectious diseases
Award winner: George Wang
Institution: Ohio State University
New technology for production of pneumonia vaccines
Award winner: Ron Weiss
Institution: Princeton University
Genetically programmed pathogen sense and destroy
Award winner: Brendan Wren
Institution: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Protein-glycan coupling technology and the development of novel conjugate vaccines
Award winner: Xilin Zhao
Institution: University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
Anaerobic shock as a novel treatment for tuberculosis
Award winner: George Church
Institution: Harvard University
Structural and functional metagenomics of the antibiotic resistome
Award winner: Angharad Davies
Institution: Swansea University
Resuscitation of stationary-phase pathogens to enhance antimicrobial susceptibility
Award winner: Dan Feldheim
Institution: University of Colorado
Nanocrystal therapeutics for the treatment of multi-drug resistant pathogens
Award winner: Qian Gao
Institution: Fudan University
What is the role of MicroRNA in the transition from latent to activated tuberculosis?
Award winner: Timothy Geary
Institution: McGill University
Drugs that target multiple receptors for anthelmintics
Award winner: Tayyaba Hasan
Institution: Harvard University
GP63-targeted conjugate for photodynamic therapy of visceral leishmaniasis
Award winner: Anwar Jardine
Institution: University of Cape Town
Mycothiol processing enzymes as potential anti-mycobacterial drug targets
Award winner: Roy Kishony
Institution: Harvard University
Drugs that invert selection for resistance
Award winner: Ryan Lilien
Institution: University of Toronto
A novel structure-based model for the prediction and exploitation of resistance mutations
Award winner: Anne Moscona
Institution: Cornell University
Untimely triggering of the fusion mechanism used by viruses for entry: a new antiviral approach using engineered microparticles
Award winner: George O'Toole
Institution: Dartmouth College
A novel antimicrobial delivery system
Award winner: Ronald Raines
Institution: University of Wisconsin
Ribonuclease zymogen as an HIV chemotherapeutic
Award winner: Pradipsinh K. Rathod
Institution: University of Washington
Strategies to disable hypermutagenesis in malaria parasites
Award winner: Graham Rook
Institution: University College London
Anti-mycrobacterials mycobactin-linked glyconanoparticles
Award winner: Samantha Sampson
Institution: Imperial College London
Gene locking: sequence-specific targeting of mycobacterium tuberculosis.