Recent news
February 2012
Gates Foundation announces grants for research to develop new tools to diagnose TB
February 9, 2012 -- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced that it is investing $7.7 million in ten new grants for research to diagnose tuberculosis (TB) in developing countries. Currently, laboratory-based technology is used to diagnose the disease, but this is often problematic due to lack of access for some patients, the length of time it takes for results to be reported, and the high number of active TB cases that it fails to detect. The grants will help promote the research that is needed to develop new low-cost, simple-to-use tools to more efficiently and accurately diagnose TB.
The Biomarkers for the Diagnosis of Tuberculosis program is part of the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative, another Gates Foundation program that helps accelerate the development of new lifesaving tools. The Gates Foundation is collaborating with GHTC member the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) to help monitor the grants and supply TB samples from developing countries. It is also working with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to co-fund one of the grants.
“There is an urgent need to break through barriers in biomarker research in order to develop a highly-sensitive point-of-care diagnostic to improve identification of active TB cases,” said Chris Wilson, director of Global Health Discovery at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in a press release. “We hope these innovative ideas lead to effective and affordable TB diagnostics that can make an impact on one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases.”
