Grant winners

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.