Product/Service Development

Jasper Ogwal-Okeng of Makerere University in Uganda will test whether the insect-eating plants can reduce the population of mosquitoes and their larvae. Ogwal- Okeng will study optimal numbers and placement of such plants and record subsequent impact on mosquito and larvae populations to further refine this vector control method.

Theresa Ochoa of Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Peru will test whether providing newborns with daily oral supplements of a key milk protein can protect them against sepsis during the critical early days in life. Lactoferrin, the most abundant protein in human and bovine milk, has been shown to have broad-spectrum antimicrobial capabilities, and could provide a new tool to fight neonatal infection and mortality in low-resource settings.

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) cause diarrhea by producing two distinct enterotoxins that attack intestinal cells. Adrienne Paton and colleagues at the University of Adelaide in Australia propose to develop a harmless probiotic bacterium capable of binding and neutralizing both these enterotoxins by mimicking their respective receptors, thereby preventing disease.

Peter Ngure of Daystar University in Kenya seeks to develop a biological control for sandflies using fungi found in the local soil in Kenya. These entomopathogenic fungi, which attach like parasites onto adult insects and larvae and kill them, will be harvested and cultured to isolate virulent strains that can eradicate sandflies, which are responsible for the spread of visceral leishmaniasis.

James Shorter of The University of Pennsylvania in the U.S. will engineer enzymes that disassemble protein fibrils found in semen, which are known to allow for the transmission of HIV infection. The ability to reverse fibril formation could block sexual transmission of HIV and provide a new weapon against the global HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Kathleen Sienko of the University of Michigan in the U.S. has developed a prototype circumcision tool for use in traditional ceremonies in Africa, and seeks to demonstrate the functionality, cultural suitability, and potential for low-cost mass production of the device. Such a tool could increase the circumcision rates leading to lower rates of HIV transmission in the region.

Hironori Matsushima of the University of Toledo in the U.S. will test the hypothesis that adding an antimicrobial peptide to powdered milk products can confer protection against enteric diseases. Research will focus on testing the peptide for its ability to kill pathogens in stomach conditions, and on its ability to maintain integrity through the milk pasteurization and drying processes.

David Mills of the University of California, Davis in the U.S. will test whether oligosaccharides found in cow's milk can be used to enrich nutritional strategies of children who have been weaned. While human milk contains oligosaccharides that have been shown protect breast-feeding infants, the older children could benefit from enrichment of intestinal microbiota to prevent intestinal diseases.

Patrick Kiser of the University of Utah in the U.S. will design a vaginal gel that blocks HIV by becoming impermeable in response to the pH change induced by the presence of semen, and includes a polymer engineered to bind to HIV surface proteins to halt viral transport to susceptible tissues and HIV target cells. In this project's Phase I research, Kiser and his team engineered a synthetic polymer that has many of the properties of mucus, and demonstrated that the polymers slow or stops the movement of cells in the presence of semen.

Gadi Borkow of Cupron, Inc. in the U.S. will study the efficacy of using newly developed copper-oxide based filters that deactivate a wide range of viruses, including HIV-1, as a shield to enable HIV-infected mothers to breastfeed their infants without risking transmission of the virus.