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Contacts: Mark Cassutt, University News Service, (612) 624-8038
Peggy Rinard, College of Biological Sciences, (612) 624-0774
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (05/04/2009) — The U of M 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 Reuben Harris, associate professor of biochemistry, molecular biology and biophysics, titled “Mortalizing HIV – A Novel Method to Help Eradicate AIDS.”
Harris’s project is one of 81 grants announced by the Gates Foundation in the second 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 17 countries on six continents.
To receive funding, Harris showed in a two-page application how his idea falls outside current scientific paradigms and might lead to significant advances in global health. The highly competitive initiative received more than 3,000 proposals in this round.
A high mutation rate enables HIV to elude immune responses and anti-retroviral drugs. Dr. Harris will test the hypothesis that a human cellular protein called APOBEC3G contributes to this mutation rate. Interventions that block this protein could make immune responses and HIV treatments more effective.
Harris has been studying mechanisms of mutation for more than 15 years, first as a doctoral student at the University of Alberta, then as a post-doctoral fellow at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, and for the past six years as a principal investigator at the University of Minnesota.
“I’m optimistic that altering the mutation rate of HIV will lead to innovative and possibly more robust AIDS therapies,” he says.
“The winners of these grants are doing truly exciting and innovative work,” said Dr. Tachi Yamada, president of the Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program. “I’m optimistic that some of these exploratory projects will lead to life-saving breakthroughs for people in the world’s poorest countries.”
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 next round of Grand Challenges Explorations are being accepted through May 28, 2009. Grant application instructions, including the list of topic areas in which proposals are currently being accepted, are available at the Grand Challenges Explorations Web site.
The Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics is a joint department of the Medical School and The College of Biological Sciences (CBS), which is one of few colleges nationwide focused on life sciences ranging from molecules to ecosystem.
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