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2009-05-05 03:52:38
By DONNA BLANKINSHIP, Associated Press Writer Donna Blankinship, Associated
Press Writer . Tue May 5, 12:19 am ET
SEATTLE . Can tomatoes be taught to make antiviral drugs for people who eat
them? Would zapping your skin with a laser make your vaccination work better?
Could malaria-carrying mosquitoes be given a teensy head cold that would
prevent them from sniffing out a human snack bar? These are among 81 projects
awarded $100,000 grants Monday by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in a bid
to support innovative, unconventional global health research.
The five-year health research grants are designed to encourage scientists to
pursue bold ideas that could lead to breakthroughs, focusing on ways to prevent
and treat infectious diseases, such as HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, pneumonia
and diarrheal diseases.
The foundation said grant recipient Eric Lam at Rutgers University in New
Jersey is exploring tomatoes as a antiviral drug delivery system.
Researchers at the University of Exeter in Devon, England, will seek to build
an inexpensive instrument to diagnose malaria by using magnets to detect the
waste products of the malaria parasite in human blood.
Mei Wu at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School will be
getting a grant to see if shooting a laser at a person's skin before
administering a vaccine can enhance immune response.
And Thomas Baker at Pennsylvania State University wants to see if
malaria-carrying mosquitoes can be infected with a fungus that would act like a
cold, suppressing the sense of smell that they use to find people as sources of
blood.
The foundation also announced plans Monday to spend $73 million over the next
five years to help small farmers in impoverished countries. That program was
outlined by foundation CEO Jeff Raikes at a water conference held at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Raikes, a former Microsoft Corp. executive, said spending on agriculture in
sub-Saharan African countries, where the foundation focuses much of its
poverty-fighting efforts, accounts for less than 5 percent of their total
government budgets. And from 1985 to 2005, spending as a percentage of
government budgets decreased in donor countries, he said, including the U.S.
The agriculture grants include $40 million over five years to develop
drought-tolerant corn, $13 million over four for more efficient irrigation, and
$10 million over four years to help women develop education and training
programs related to agriculture.
The largest philanthropic foundation in the world, the Gates Foundation gave
out $2.8 billion last year. It has said payouts this year would grow by about
10 percent, less than previously planned, because of the troubled economy.
The foundation was started in 1994 by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his
wife and has the international goals of overcoming hunger, poverty and disease.
In this country, its focus is on education, which receives about a quarter of
its grant dollars.