Colo. companies win grants from Gates Foundation

SEATTLE ? The Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative, a project of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, awarded nearly $24 million to three Colorado companies June 27.

Dr. Robert Sievers, a University of Colorado at Boulder chemist and lead investigator for Boulder-based Aktiv-Dry LLC, garnered $19.5 million to research an dry-powder version of the measles vaccine that can be inhaled. Measles kills almost 1 million people each year.

Dr. Robert Garcea, a researcher at University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, received $3.5 million to try develop a treatment for human papillomavirus, which causes nearly 500,000 cases of cervical cancer every year.

SPONSORED CONTENT

People Powered: Preparing Longmont Businesses for Economic Success

Longmont Chamber and FNBO present People Powered on April 24, 2024, aiming to inform business owners about workforce development, housing, and transportation issues.

Marazban Sarkari, lead investigator of RxKinetix Inc., a Louisville-based biotech company, was awarded $789,000 to explore temperature-stable vaccines for use in third-world nations.

A total of $436.6 million was given to 43 research projects in 33 countries.

The goal of the initiative, which is also funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, is to create health tools that are not only effective, but inexpensive to produce, easy to distribute and simple to use in developing countries.

Additional proposed Grand Challenges projects are under review and may be awarded grants later this year.