Your drugs could be in — the tomatoes, according to an award-winning project seeking a method to deliver antiviral drugs through the fruit.
That experiment, and another novel one that developed a fungus that acts like a head cold for malaria-carrying mosquitoes are among 81 projects awarded $100,000 grants Monday from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support innovative, unconventional global health research.
The foundation also announced plans Monday to spend $73 million during the next five years to help small farmers in impoverished countries. Foundation CEO Jeff Raikes outlined that program at a water conference at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Raikes, a former Microsoft executive, said the foundation sees agriculture as a "compelling solution" to poverty. But government spending on agriculture in poor countries such as those in sub-Sahara Africa declined from 1985 to 2005, he said.
The five-year health research grants are designed to encourage scientists to pursue bold ideas that could lead to breakthroughs.
The Seattle-based foundation said those funds are going to researchers in 17 countries as the second round of the Grand Challenges Explorations program, which the foundation launched in 2008. The foundation is accepting applications for the third round until May 28.
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