Washington: Bill Gates, the co-founder of
Microsoft, believes chewing gum and chocolate could become the
next tool to combat malaria, as he uses his wealth to seek
unconventional approaches to world health problems.
As part of its Grand Challenges Exploration programme,
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has granted USD 100,000
to researchers hoping to use chewing gum to detect malaria
indicators in saliva so that blood does not have to be drawn.
The five-year health research grants aims to encourage
researchers to pursue bold ideas that could lead to
breakthroughs, focusing on ways to prevent and treat
infectious diseases such as HIV, malaria, tuberculosis and
pneumonia.
Andrew Fung, a UCLA doctoral candidate, will use the
grant to develop his idea on the revolutionary malaria
test.
Fung admits his idea for an inexpensive and
non-invasive new way to detect malaria started out as an
intellectual exercise designed to showcase his creativity for
a potential post doctorate employer. He was hoping for a job,
not a research grant. He may get both.
Gates also agreed to fund a research by Steven Maranz,
from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, who seeks to
look at the effect of chocolate on the malaria parasite.
Chocolate is a promising substance for malaria
research because it binds with cholesterol and takes it out of
circulation. Maranz wants to kill some of the parasites but
leave enough in the blood to help children develop a lifetime
resistance to malaria.
The scientist points out that although he feels
confident of his idea, it`s still an unproven hypothesis.
"This is an exploration grant. Nothing is proven at
this point," said Maranz, speaking for himself and all the
other scientists receiving Grand Challenges grants.
The Foundation gave grants of USD 100,000 to each of
76 unconventional approaches to global health research.
Tuesday`s announcement, the third round of such grants, saw
nearly 3,000 proposals being submitted.
Dr. Tachi Yamada, president of the Gates Foundation`s
Global Health Programme, said the foundation hopes this grant
programme will someday produce a breakthrough idea that could
save untold numbers of lives.
Bureau Report