Our efforts fall into four main areas: vaccine discovery, drug discovery, maternal and child health, and control of disease-transmitting mosquitoes.
A number of problems plague the development of vaccines against infectious diseases, including insufficient quality and diversity of preclinical candidates, slow entry into and limited throughput in early-stage test-of-concept trials in humans, and the high cost of clinical trials. It typically takes 15 to 20 years to go from target discovery to deployment of a new vaccine even when the paradigm is well established, which is not the case for diseases such as HIV, TB, and malaria, for which new approaches are required.
A low-cost microneedle patch for delivering inactivated polio vaccine is in the testing phase.
We invest in technologies that can identify promising vaccine candidates and refine them before they enter costly and time-consuming late-stage clinical trials. We also invest in research to better understand the health factors that affect susceptibility to infectious diseases and vaccine efficacy, such as malnutrition and co-infections. Furthermore, we seek more effective models of collaboration with major vaccine manufacturers to better identify and pursue mutually beneficial opportunities.
Our vaccine discovery efforts focus on developing vaccine technologies and closing knowledge gaps to facilitate the eradication of polio, testing a new strategy for developing next-generation malaria vaccines and transmission-blocking immunotherapeutics, developing a broadly effective HIV/AIDS vaccine, and enabling more rational and accelerated development of TB vaccine candidates.
Antimicrobial drugs have been the cornerstone of infectious disease treatment, but relatively few treatment options are available for the diseases that have the greatest impact in the developing world. Drug-resistant TB and malaria are also growing problems.
We work to speed the identification of the best drug candidates, and, as we do with vaccine discovery, we look for opportunities to collaborate with pharmaceutical companies because of their unique resources and expertise and to foster productive academic-industry interactions. We also seek to develop new technologies and approaches to slow the evolution and spread of drug resistance, including alternative formulations and drug-delivery technologies.
We support efforts to create a new generation of more effective and less toxic drugs to treat malaria, TB, visceral leishmaniasis (black fever), human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), onchocerciasis (river blindness), and lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis), and to control severe diarrhea.
Maternal and Child Health
A broad range of scientific studies are needed to identify how maternal, fetal, newborn, and infant health outcomes are affected by factors including nutrition, infection, and exposure to environmental toxins.
We invest in research to discover the causes of preterm birth.
We invest in research to discover the causes of preterm birth (PTB), which is a leading cause of infant mortality, and to develop innovative strategies for prevention. Efforts include developing biomarkers for PTB, which can be applied in early pregnancy to predict impending PTB and thereby target use of established preventive measures and treatments. We fund projects to establish metrics for, and discover the causes of, growth faltering in utero and during the first two years of life—a window of time in which serious health problems can impair growth and affect long-term health—and to develop new ways to prevent or reverse unhealthy growth marked by stunting and wasting. Through our Grand Challenges Explorations program and other efforts, we are seeking new approaches to measuring physical growth, brain function, and development in order to better guide and monitor healthy growth interventions.
Controlling Disease-Transmitting Mosquitoes
Mosquitoes spread many serious diseases, including malaria and dengue fever, to millions of people annually. A primary strategy for fighting these diseases is the use of insecticides to kill disease-transmitting mosquitoes. Mosquitoes have grown increasingly resistant to available insecticides, however, and some insecticides are too toxic for widespread use. They also can require people to change their behavior—to use bed nets, for instance—and they need funding to maintain distribution systems.
Our investments in mosquito control include nontraditional biological and genetic approaches as well as new chemical interventions aimed at depleting or incapacitating disease-transmitting mosquito populations. One biological control project for dengue fever that began through our Grand Challenges in Global Health grant program has progressed to field trials in Australia, Indonesia, and Vietnam.