Maternal, Newborn, and Adolescent Health

Darryl Russell of the University of Adelaide in Australia is seeking safer contraceptives that block ovulation without altering hormone levels and cause fewer side effects using an automated in-vitro screening platform that measures cell adhesion in the cumulus-oocyte complex, which is required to release the oocyte from the ovary. In Phase I, they built the screening platform by isolating cumulus-oocyte complexes from mice, culturing them in fibronectin-coated multi-well plates, and quantifying adhesion in a 96-well plate format using an automated assay.

Anne CC Lee and Mandy Brown Belfort of Brigham and Women's Hospital in the U.S. along with Stéphane Sizonenko and Petra Huppi of the University of Geneva in Switzerland will test whether lactoferrin, a breast milk nutrient, can promote growth and reduce injury in the developing infant brain. Of the 15 million annual preterm births, almost a million of the surviving babies have severe neurological defects such as cerebral palsy. However, there are limited treatments available. Breast milk has a positive effect on the infant brain, but the mechanisms for this are unclear.

Bolanle Oyeledun of the Center for Integrated Health Programs in Nigeria will develop a new approach that involves teaching Nigerian parents to leverage their motivations for ensuring their children were fully immunized so that they can persuade other parents in low-income settings to do the same. They will hold interviews and group discussions with around 250 parents and grandparents of children who are fully immunized across four regions of Nigeria.

Noshad Ali of Precision Health Consultants Pvt Ltd in Pakistan will develop a speech recognition platform to record child vaccination data and increase efficiency at vaccination clinics. Adherence to the recommended vaccination schedule is critical for reducing vaccine-preventable disease in developing countries and is increased when caregivers have positive interactions with healthcare workers. They will implement a system that will allow caregivers to dictate and record child vaccination information via speech recognition.

Sumeet Singh of Onekeycare Ventures Private Limited in India will develop a voice-based platform to store immunization records and improve caregiver attitudes toward vaccination in rural India. Adherence to a standard immunization schedule is essential to reduce childhood death from vaccine-preventable diseases. However, many mothers in rural and remote India are unaware of the recommended childhood immunization schedule and how crucial it is to follow it.

Rajiv Rimal of George Washington University in the U.S. will increase vaccination uptake in Nepal by improving the state of health centers to make them more enjoyable and practical places for mothers to bring their children and to motivate health workers to provide better care. In Nepal and many other low-resource settings, essential health services such as vaccinations are often provided in settings with long waiting times and limited facilities, which is also demotivating for the staff.

Suparna Kalghatgi of Bempu Health Private Limited in India will introduce an online, personalized messaging platform to educate parents and caregivers on immunization and address their concerns to increase vaccine compliance and decrease childhood morbidity in India. Despite the existence of a universal immunization program, there are 7.4 million unvaccinated children in India, and only 65% of infants are fully vaccinated by age one.

Anne De Groot of the GAIA Vaccine Foundation in the U.S., along with Mika Kunieda of Keio University in Japan and Eliza Squibb and Julia Shivers of ZTwist Design in Boston, will design and distribute printed fabric baby-wraps that use West African iconography to represent the infant vaccination schedule to new mothers in Niger to encourage vaccine completion and reduce child mortality in West Africa.

Rozina Feroz Ali of IRD Global Limited in Singapore along with Subhash Chandir and Danya Arif will establish a subsidized carpool for Pakistani women in rural areas and urban slums to improve access to immunization centers and increase vaccination coverage. Poor vaccine coverage in Pakistan is a result of the combined effects of poverty, lack of education, poor access to transportation, and distantly located vaccination centers; populations in rural areas and urban slums are vulnerable to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable disease and an increased childhood mortality rate.

Tisungane Mvalo and Gerald Tegha of Lilongwe Medical Relief Fund Trust along with Msandeni Chiume at Kamuzu Central Hospital both in Malawi, Emily Ciccone from the University of North Carolina in the US and Pascal Lavoie of the University of British Columbia in Canada will establish metagenomic next generation sequencing at a research laboratory in Malawi to identify pathogens causing infections in young infants to ensure rapid treatment with appropriate therapy and limit unnecessary antibiotic use.