Sanjoy Ghosh and Deanna Gibson, assistant professors in biology with the Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus have received a US$100,000 Grand Challenges Exploration grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus announced today that it will receive funding of US $100,000 through Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative created by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that enables researchers worldwide to test unorthodox ideas that address persistent health and development challenges.
Deanna Gibson and Sanjoy Ghosh, assistant professors in biology with the Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences will pursue an innovative global health research project, titled Maternal dietary intake alters offspring’s disease risk: Mom’s dietary lipid intake can increase their offspring’s susceptibility to enteric infectious disease.
Grand Challenges Explorations funds scientists and researchers worldwide to explore ideas that can break the mold in how we solve persistent global health and development challenges. Gibson and Ghosh’s project is one of 110 Grand Challenges Explorations grants announced today.
“We believe in the power of innovation—that a single bold idea can pioneer solutions to our greatest health and development challenges,” said Chris Wilson, Director of Global Health Discovery for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “Grand Challenges Explorations seeks to identify and fund these new ideas wherever they come from, allowing scientists, innovators and entrepreneurs to pursue the kinds of creative ideas and novel approaches that could help to accelerate the end of polio, cure HIV infection or improve sanitation.”
Projects that are receiving funding show promise in tackling priority global health issues where solutions do not yet exist. This includes finding effective methods to eliminate or control infectious diseases such as polio and HIV as well as discovering new sanitation technologies.
To learn more about Grand Challenges Explorations, visit www.grandchallenges.org
To view a list and description of all 110 projects awarded Grand Challenges Exploration grants, visit: http://www.grandchallenges.org/Explorations/Pages/GrantsAwarded.aspx
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