Product/Service Development

Jeffrey Jensen of Oregon Health & Science University in the U.S. will test the feasibility of using the varicose vein treatment polidocanol in a foam format to close fallopian tubes. The method could be administered by minimally-trained healthcare workers and could be a low-cost, nonsurgical permanent contraceptive method for women in developing countries who want control over their long-term family planning. This project's Phase I research showed that polidocanol foam can block the fallopian tubes of rhesus macaques without causing adverse non-target effects.

Rachel Teitelbaum of Hervana, Ltd. in Israel will develop and test a vaginal formulation that secretes an agent which inhibits sperm motility thus interfering with fertilization. It is hoped that this non-hormonal contraceptive will need only infrequent administration to maintain its effectiveness.

Existing malaria vector control methods (e.g. nets and insecticide sprays) primarily target mosquitoes that enter or attempt to enter human dwellings, yet mosquitoes also obtain significant proportions of essential resources outdoors. Fredros Okumu of Ifakara Health Institute in Tanzania and his co-investigators therefore proposed the use of strategically-located outdoor vector control devices. In this project's Phase I research, the team created new and easy-to-use outdoor methods for luring, trapping and killing mosquitoes, including major African malaria vectors.

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.

Optical information, temperature gradients, trace gases and volatile odors are key sensory inputs for mosquitoes. To mitigate the transmission of malaria, Szabolcs Marka of Columbia University in the U.S. will research how optical irradiation might be used to physically disrupt mosquitoes' sensory systems such that they can't find human hosts. This project’s Phase I research demonstrated that insects are repelled or change their flight behavior in response to different infrared light gradients.

More than 300 million people in arid and semi-arid regions of Africa rely on sorghum as their primary source of food. The grain is one of the few crops that grow well in arid climates, but it is deficient in most essential nutrients and is difficult to digest.

Although rice is a primary source of food for much of the world's population, it is a poor source of many essential micronutrients, as well as protein. As a result, widespread reliance on rice is the primary cause of micronutrient malnutrition throughout much of the developing world. Dr. Beyer is leading an international, collaborative effort called the ProVitaMinRice Consortium. The consortium's members are developing new varieties of rice with increased levels or bioavailability of pro-vitamin A, vitamin E, iron, and zinc as well improved protein quality and content.

Poor nutrition is a major global health problem, contributing to half of the nearly 10 million deaths that occur each year in children younger than 5 and much of the death disease and suffering impacting sub-Saharan Africa. A starchy root crop called cassava is the major source of calories for more than 250 million Africans in this region, but cassava has the lowest protein-to-energy ratio of any staple crop. Dr. Sayre is leading a multidisciplinary team of scientists, brought together as BioCassava Plus, that is working to create nutritious cassava for sub-Saharan Africa.

Bananas are the major staple food in Uganda, where the average person consumes more than 1 kilogram of the fruit each day. Banana-based diets, however, are deficient in vitamin A and iron, as well as in vitamin E. A promising long-term solution to this problem may be to genetically modify crops, including bananas, so that they contain high levels of essential nutrients. Dr.

Almost half of the regions in Peru have increased mining activities. In these regions, the overwhelming majority of the population is coping with high levels of lead in their blood (over 10 ug/dL). Also, nine out of ten children are showing high levels of at least one heavy metal in their body. Chronic exposure to heavy metals (even at low levels) is detrimental for human health and the issue has been established as a public health concern in Peruvian regions with mining activity. Most studies are focused on both the environment and human exposure.