Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The New York Times - June 28, 2005
Donald G. McNeil Jr
The 43 projects were the winners of a competition announced by Gates two years ago to find new ways to attack the greatest health challenges facing people in poor countries. The contest attracted 1,500 proposals from 70 countries.
The projects, which will get five-year grants of up to $20 million each, are "very visionary and very, very high risk," said Dr. Richard Klausner, who runs the Gates Foundation's global health program. "But if any of them are successful, it will be well worth the investment."
Among the pursuits are vaccines that need no refrigeration and can be given without needles, new ways to kill or cripple mosquitoes, and new ways to attack diseases such as tuberculosis when they are dormant.
As part of receiving a grant, the researchers are allowed to patent anything they invent, but they must guarantee that it will be made available to poor countries at low cost or free.
The Gates grants are "an exceptional commitment to global health research," said Dr. Timothy Evans, assistant director general for policy at the World Health Organization.
In some cases, several teams are competing, taking different paths to the same goal.
Six, for example, are working on ways to deliver vaccines through nasal sprays, inhalers, skin patches or drinks.
Three--one based at Yale University, one in Germany and one in China--are trying to make mice more immunologically human so AIDS vaccines can be tested on them.
Two technologies will compete for making vaccines that do not need to be kept chilled, overcoming a major obstacle to vaccinating children in rural Africa. One envisions encapsulating vaccines in bacterial spores, another in a protective coating already used in cosmetics.
Many winning teams combine researchers from universities, biotech companies and government agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Richard Sayre, a plant biologist at Ohio State University, won a $7.5 million grant to develop a better, less toxic cassava, a starchy root containing cyanide that is the staple food for 250 million people in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
Other grants are for a more nutritious banana, better rice and more digestible sorghum.
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