Grand challenges in global health
Encyclopedia
The Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative is a partnership dedicated to supporting scientific and technical research to solve critical health problems in the developing world. Currently 14 independent "Grand Challenges" are supported. The initiative's partners are the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research
, the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, and the Wellcome Trust
.
Grand Challenge #2: Prepare Vaccines that Do Not Require Refrigeration
Grand Challenge #3: Develop Needle-Free Delivery Systems
for Vaccines
Grand Challenge #4: Devise Reliable Tests in Model Systems to Evaluate Live-attenuated Vaccines
Grand Challenge #5: Solve How to Design Antigens for Effective, Protective immunity
Grand Challenge #6: Learn Which Immunological Responses Provide Protective immunity
Grand Challenge #7: Develop a Genetic
Strategy to Deplete or Incapacitate a Disease-transmitting Insect
Population
Grand Challenge #8: Develop a Chemical Strategy to Deplete or Incapacitate a Disease-transmitting Insect Population
Grand Challenge #9: Create a Full Range of Optimal, Bioavailable Nutrients in a Single Staple
Plant Species
Grand Challenge #10: Discover Drugs
and Delivery Systems that Minimize the Likelihood of Drug Resistant
Micro-organisms
Grand Challenge #11: Create Therapies that Can Cure Latent Infection
Grand Challenge #12: Create Immunological Methods that Can Cure Latent Infection
Grand Challenge #13: Develop Technologies that Permit Quantitative
Assessment of Population Health
Grand Challenge #14: Develop Technologies that Allow Assessment of Individuals for Multiple Conditions or Pathogens at Point of Care
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest transparently operated private foundation in the world, founded by Bill and Melinda Gates. It is "driven by the interests and passions of the Gates family"...
, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Canadian Institutes of Health Research is the major federal agency responsible for funding health research in Canada. It is the successor to the Medical Research Council of Canada. It aims to create new health knowledge, and to translate that knowledge from the research setting into real world...
, the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, and the Wellcome Trust
Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust was established in 1936 as an independent charity funding research to improve human and animal health. With an endowment of around £13.9 billion, it is the United Kingdom's largest non-governmental source of funds for biomedical research...
.
The Grand Challenges
Grand Challenge #1: Create Effective Single-Dose Vaccines that Can be used Soon After BirthBirth
Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring. The offspring is brought forth from the mother. The time of human birth is defined as the time at which the fetus comes out of the mother's womb into the world...
Grand Challenge #2: Prepare Vaccines that Do Not Require Refrigeration
Refrigeration
Refrigeration is a process in which work is done to move heat from one location to another. This work is traditionally done by mechanical work, but can also be done by magnetism, laser or other means...
Grand Challenge #3: Develop Needle-Free Delivery Systems
Drug delivery
Drug delivery is the method or process of administering a pharmaceutical compound to achieve a therapeutic effect in humans or animals. Drug delivery technologies modify drug release profile, absorption, distribution and elimination for the benefit of improving product efficacy and safety, as well...
for Vaccines
Grand Challenge #4: Devise Reliable Tests in Model Systems to Evaluate Live-attenuated Vaccines
Grand Challenge #5: Solve How to Design Antigens for Effective, Protective immunity
Immunity (medical)
Immunity is a biological term that describes a state of having sufficient biological defenses to avoid infection, disease, or other unwanted biological invasion. Immunity involves both specific and non-specific components. The non-specific components act either as barriers or as eliminators of wide...
Grand Challenge #6: Learn Which Immunological Responses Provide Protective immunity
Grand Challenge #7: Develop a Genetic
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
Strategy to Deplete or Incapacitate a Disease-transmitting Insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
Population
Grand Challenge #8: Develop a Chemical Strategy to Deplete or Incapacitate a Disease-transmitting Insect Population
Grand Challenge #9: Create a Full Range of Optimal, Bioavailable Nutrients in a Single Staple
Staple food
A staple food is one that is eaten regularly and in such quantities that it constitutes a dominant portion of a diet, and that supplies a high proportion of energy and nutrient needs. Most people live on a diet based on one or more staples...
Plant Species
Grand Challenge #10: Discover Drugs
Medication
A pharmaceutical drug, also referred to as medicine, medication or medicament, can be loosely defined as any chemical substance intended for use in the medical diagnosis, cure, treatment, or prevention of disease.- Classification :...
and Delivery Systems that Minimize the Likelihood of Drug Resistant
Drug resistance
Drug resistance is the reduction in effectiveness of a drug such as an antimicrobial or an antineoplastic in curing a disease or condition. When the drug is not intended to kill or inhibit a pathogen, then the term is equivalent to dosage failure or drug tolerance. More commonly, the term is used...
Micro-organisms
Microorganism
A microorganism or microbe is a microscopic organism that comprises either a single cell , cell clusters, or no cell at all...
Grand Challenge #11: Create Therapies that Can Cure Latent Infection
Virus latency
Virus latency is the ability of a pathogenic virus to lie dormant within a cell, denoted as the lysogenic part of the viral life cycle. A latent viral infection is a type of persistent viral infection which is distinguished from a chronic viral infection...
Grand Challenge #12: Create Immunological Methods that Can Cure Latent Infection
Grand Challenge #13: Develop Technologies that Permit Quantitative
Quantitative property
A quantitative property is one that exists in a range of magnitudes, and can therefore be measured with a number. Measurements of any particular quantitative property are expressed as a specific quantity, referred to as a unit, multiplied by a number. Examples of physical quantities are distance,...
Assessment of Population Health
Population health
Population health has been defined as “the health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group.” It is an approach to health that aims to improve the health of an entire population. One major step in achieving this aim is to reduce health...
Grand Challenge #14: Develop Technologies that Allow Assessment of Individuals for Multiple Conditions or Pathogens at Point of Care
Point-of-care testing
Point-of-care testing is defined as medical testing at or near the site of patient care. The driving notion behind POCT is to bring the test conveniently and immediately to the patient. This increases the likelihood that the patient, physician, and care team will receive the results quicker,...