Three teams of scientists from India are among those who will receive grants worth 100,000 dollars each from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to pursue bold ideas for transforming health in developing countries.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced 76 grants of US$ 100,000 each to pursue bold ideas for transforming health in developing countries. The grants support researchers in 16 countries, including three from India, with ideas as diverse as a developing an electronic nose to diagnose tuberculosis and using chocolate to help prevent malaria.

Ranjan Nanda, K V S Rao and Virander Chauhan of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology in Delhi will attempt to create a handheld 'electronic nose' that gathers and analyzes breath samples to diagnose tuberculosis in resource-poor settings while Abani Nag and Amiya Hati of Vivekananda International Health Centre in Kolkata will test whether liver ultrasounds and functional liver enzyme tests can help care providers differentiate between relapse and re-infection of malaria, leading to better treatment in endemic areas.

Deepak Gaur, Chetan Chitnis and Virander Chauhan of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology in Delhi will work to develop a malaria vaccine that blocks invasion pathways used by a wide diversity of malaria parasites.

“Some of the biggest stumbling blocks in global health are now being overcome with promising new vaccines and treatments,” said Dr Tachi Yamada, president of the Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program. “Grand Challenges Explorations will continue to fill the pipeline with possibilities and hopefully produce a breakthrough idea that could save untold numbers of lives.”

In three rounds of the foundation’s Grand Challenges Explorations initiative, 262 researchers representing 30 countries have been awarded grants. Newly-funded projects include efforts to develop a paper cup that turns TB-positive sputum samples a bright orange, use a peptide found in scorpions to block development of the malaria parasite, and adapt a protein that parasites use to seal their egg cases as a “sticky coating” for intranasal vaccines.

Grantees from round three were selected from almost 3,000 proposals. All levels of scientists are represented – from young post-graduate investigators to veteran researchers – as are a wide range of disciplines, such as chemistry, bioengineering, electronics, mechanical engineering, infectious disease, and epidemiology.