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Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign-up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, we highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week.  Spanish researchers at Madrid's October 12 Hospital are working to develop what would be the world’s first vaccine against all five strains of the Ebola virus. The research team, along with scientists at two other hospitals in Madrid, have examined blood samples taken from three people cured of Ebola in Spain. These three people produced what lead researcher, Rafael Delgado, called ‘very effective’ antibodies against the Zaire strain with which they were infected. Delgado noted researchers aim to reproduce these antibodies on a larger scale that would make them effective against all five strains of the Ebola virus. An experimental vaccine developed by Merck was administered during the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo in May; however, it is only effective against the Zaire strain. PREDICT, a global surveillance program that aims to avert future pandemics in the human population, has discovered a new virus that infects wrinkle-lipped bats. The virus, discovered in Myanmar, is the first of its kind to be detected on a global scale and is in the same virus family as the ones that cause SARS and MERS. The research team also identified among the Myanmar bats a second new virus previously found in Thailand, conveying how diseases can easily spread globally. Although these new viruses are related to viruses that have previously caused deadly epidemics in humans, more research is required to determine if either new virus poses a threat to humans. An experiment by Australian researchers has killed 80 percent of disease-carrying mosquitoes in trial locations across north Queensland. The experiment—carried out by scientists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization and James Cook University, in partnership with Verily—targeted a specific type of mosquito, the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which spreads diseases such as Zika and dengue fever. Using a process called the Sterile Insect Technique, researchers bred almost 20 million mosquitoes, infecting males with bacteria that made them sterile. The sterile male mosquitos did not bite or spread disease and when they mated, the resulting eggs did not hatch causing a crash in the population. Further field trials may be held in other parts of Australia.

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign-up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, we highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week. An HIV vaccine candidate has shown promising results in human trials. A study in the Lancet found that this “mosaic” vaccine—comprised of pieces of different HIV strains—produced an anti-HIV immune system response in tests on 393 people. Further testing is required to determine if the immune response produced can prevent the HIV infection in people. In the next phase of testing, 2,600 women from southern Africa who are at risk of contracting HIV will receive the vaccine. This is one of only five HIV vaccine candidates to ever make it to this stage of efficacy trials. Paraguay has eliminated malaria, becoming the first country in the Americas to achieve this milestone in approximately a half-century, according to the World Health Organization. Public health officials have credited the national health system’s ability to quickly detect cases and determine whether they had been transmitted locally or imported as critical to Paraguay’s success. Though Paraguay has thwarted the threat of malaria for the moment, nine countries in the Americas reported at least a 20 percent increase in malaria cases between 2015 and 2016. Complacency and lack of political will in other countries in the region threaten the fight against malaria. Scientists at the California Institute for Biomedical Research are testing a new approach to tackling malaria and other insect-borne diseases using a group of veterinary drugs called isoxazolines. When administered orally to animals, isoxazolines remain in the bloodstream for up to three months, killing blood-sucking insects by damaging their nervous systems. The researchers believe isoxazolines have the potential to dramatically reduce the transmission of malaria, as any mosquito who bites a person who has taken this drug would be killed before transmitting the disease to other people. The study published by the California Institute for Biomedical Research estimates that giving 30 percent of the population isoxazolines in countries affected by malaria could prevent more than 70 percent of malaria infections. Researchers believe that isoxazolines are safe for human consumption and plan to continue to evaluate their efficacy.

The Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) has opened nominations for its 2018 Innovating for Impact Awards. Now in its second year, this initiative recognizes the research partnerships and political champions that help transform breakthrough scientific research into lifesaving drugs, diagnostics, vaccines, and other tools for devastating, unmet global health challenges. Awards will be presented in two categories: The PARTNERSHIP AWARD honors an innovative research and development (R&D) partnership that brings together multisector partners to advance a high-impact, game-changing global health technology. The partnership must have received federally funded research support or in-kind support from a US government agency. The CONGRESSIONAL CHAMPION AWARD honors two US Members of Congress whose actions have strengthened political will and advanced US efforts to develop technologies to fight the world’s most challenging diseases and health conditions. Nominations will be open until August 17, 2018. Awardees will be editorially selected by a committee of leaders from the global health and research communities. Honorees will be celebrated at a recognition dinner in Washington, DC this fall before an audience of policymakers, US government officials, media, and leaders of the global health and medical research communities. Last year’s awards honored Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) and Congressman Tom Cole (R-OK) for their leadership in advancing global health R&D and the partnership that developed the dapivirine microbicide ring—a woman-centered HIV prevention tool—for its efforts to advance this groundbreaking new technology.