Makerere University has received a $100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will support an innovative global health research project conducted by Dr. Jasper Ogwal-Okeng, Professor with School of Biomedical Sciences,

Makerere University has received a $100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will support an innovative global health research project conducted by Dr. Jasper Ogwal-Okeng, Professor with School of Biomedical Sciences,

Makerere College of Health Sciences, and colleagues from Department of Botany (Dr James Kalema and Dr Mary Namaganda), and their research to develop a new way of controlling malaria by controlling the population of malaria-transmitting mosquitoes.

Prof. Ogwal-Okeng’s project is one of 78 grants announced by the Gates Foundation in the fourth funding round of Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative to help scientists around the world explore bold and largely unproven ways to improve health in developing countries. The grants were provided to scientists in 18 countries on six continents.

To receive funding, Prof. Ogwal-Okeng’s team showed in a two-page application how his idea falls outside current scientific paradigms and might lead to significant advances in global health. The initiative is highly competitive, receiving almost 2,700 proposals in this round.

Prof. Ogwal-Okeng’s work towards developing a new method of controlling malaria builds from the knowledge that insect-eating plants grow well in swamps and land in Uganda. Those that grow in water may trap and eat mosquito larvae, while those on land may trap and eat adult mosquitoes. When propogated and deployed appropriately in and around houses and in stagnant waters, may reduce the populations of adult mosquitoes and larvae, thereby reducing chances of humans being bitten and acquiring malaria. These plant species have very beautiful flowers and Prof Ogwal-Okeng hopes that they will quickly be accepted, particularly as ornaments around and inside houses.

“The winners of these grants show the bold thinking we need to tackle some of the world’s greatest health challenges,” said Dr. Tachi Yamada, president of the Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program. “I’m excited about their ideas and look forward to seeing some of these exploratory projects turn into lifesaving breakthroughs.”

About Grand Challenges Explorations
Grand Challenges Explorations is a five-year, $100 million initiative of the Gates Foundation to promote innovation in global health. The program uses an agile, streamlined grant process – applications are limited to two pages, and preliminary data are not required. Proposals are reviewed and selected by a committee of foundation staff and external experts, and grant decisions are made within approximately three months of the close of the funding round.

Applications for the current round of Grand Challenges Explorations are being accepted through May 19, 2010. Grant application instructions, including the list of topics for which proposals are currently being accepted, are available at www.grandchallenges.org/explorations.