New Grand Challenges
How to Apply:
Innovations for Gram-Negative Antibiotic Discovery
The ultimate objective of Gr-ADI will be to enable discovery of safe and simple first-line broad-spectrum drugs for syndromic management, through:
- Development of novel and emerging biological, chemical, and AI tools that could be applied broadly for antibiotic discovery to identify new antibiotic targets.
- Application of these innovative approaches to generate chemical starting points for project-based drug discovery.
- Fostering a collective mindset to address gaps in knowledge, solve problems, and manage a portfolio of targets and hits.
Accelerating Innovations to Address Heavy Menstrual Bleeding in Women in Low-Resource Settings
We invite research proposals on HMB based on the clinical definition that focus on:
- Biological Mechanisms – Advancing understanding of the fundamental biology of HMB to identify targets for innovative diagnostics and treatments.
- Epidemiology and Impact – Assessing disease burden, patterns, and impact on gynecological health and quality of life in women in low-resource settings.
- Measurement and Standardization – Developing and validating improved methods for measuring HMB and establishing standardized research protocols to enable consistent and comparable studies across diverse populations and healthcare systems.
- Innovative Diagnostics – Proposing new technology or piloting the use of existing technology to identify causes of HMB in low resource settings, including the use of artificial intelligence. Technology should be easy to use and affordable.
- Treatment and Access – Evaluating the effectiveness, acceptability, and ways to increase access to treatment including hormonal contraceptives, to inform patient-centered care in low-resource settings.
Enhancing HIV and TB Diagnosis: Adjunct Technologies for Sample Collection and Processing
Recent improvements in diagnostic testing have enabled molecular and lateral flow testing to be performed closer to the patient than ever and in some cases at home with a fully consumable test format. The challenge lies in developing solutions upstream to testing that enable easier, more affordable, and self-administered sample collection, sample preparation, and lysis when needed to support innovative PoC tests with faster turnaround times.
"Enhancing HIV and TB Diagnosis: Adjunct Technologies for Sample Collection and Processing"
Specifically, the objectives of this challenge will be to address one, or all, of the following:
- Self-Sample Blood Collection Devices (Phlebotomist-free blood collection)
- Solutions must enable phlebotomist-free collection of at least 1 mL of whole blood with performance comparable to phlebotomist-collected samples. Key parameters include sample quality, volume collected, failure rate, and ease of use.
- Solutions must ensure that the sample is stable for at least 24 hours at temperatures up to 40°C and humidity up to 70% without the need for cold chain.
- Ideally, the solution should be compatible with serum or plasma generation but must, at minimum, enable robust whole blood collection.
- If a design includes a sample collection or container component (e.g., a tube or cup), the storage device must prevent leakage and/or aerosolization of contents during storage and transportation.
- If a design includes a buffer, it must be compatible with downstream immunoassay or nucleic acid amplification and detection without need for extraction or purification.
- Solutions developed must be simple enough for use at home by a layperson or by a low-level healthcare worker.
- Sample Collection for MTB
- Solutions must enable collection of reproducibly consistent specimen biomass that does not require pipetting.
- If a design includes a sample collection or container component (e.g., a tube or cup), the storage device must prevent leakage and/or aerosolization of contents during storage and transportation.
- If a design includes a buffer, it must be compatible with downstream lysis and nucleic acid amplification and detection without need for extraction or purification.
- Samples must be stable for up to 72 hours at temperatures up to 40°C and humidity up to 70% without the need for cold chain.
- Solutions must be safe for administration and simple enough for home use by a layperson or low-level healthcare worker.
- Sample Preparation Devices (Instrument-free sample processing) for HIV detection
- Sample preparation solutions could include single or multiple sample processing aspects such as sample clean up, filtration, plasma/serum generation, analyte concentration, etc.
- If sample preparation is integrated with sample collection, the processing step (e.g., plasma/serum separation) should be seamless and included in the collection workflow.
- If sample preparation includes stabilization, specifically for RNA targets, solutions should enable sample stabilization for at least 24 hours or more at temperatures up to 40°C and humidity up to 70% without the need for cold chain. The samples must also meet performance equivalence to fresh samples (TSS 1 - Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) rapid diagnostic tests for professional and/or self-testing).
- Ideally, no additional instruments should be required to complete the steps. However, if any are necessary, they must be compact, easily transportable, battery-powered, and cost-effective (under $50 USD).
- The solution must be simple and safe enough to be performed at home by a lay user or by a low-level health care worker.
- Sample Lysis Devices (Instrument-free lysis) for TB lysis
- Novel devices must demonstrate feasibility of MTB cell inactivation (by standard biosafety analysis protocols) and lysis (as compared to mechanical lysis via bead beating or sonication) without the need for a reusable instrument. (New Manual Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction Assay Validated on Tongue Swabs Collected and Processed in Uganda Shows Sensitivity That Rivals Sputum-based Molecular Tuberculosis Diagnostics).
- The solution must break open the MTB cells (>50% lysis efficiency compared to mechanical lysis via bead beating or sonication) without damaging target DNA.
- The resulting lysate must be stable for up to 72 hours at temperatures up to 40°C and humidity up to 70% without the need for cold chain.
- Ideally, no additional instruments should be required to complete the steps. However, if any are necessary, they must be compact, easily transportable, battery-powered, and cost-effective (under $50 USD).
- The solution must be simple and safe enough to be performed at home by a lay user or by a low-level health care worker.
- Sample Clean up and Analyte Concentration
- Pre analytical solutions to improve analyte quality for improved assay performance including but not limited to sample clean up, analyte concentration, and interference removal.
- The solution must demonstrate equivalence with laboratory sample clean up methods and analyte concentration kits.
Innovative Data and Modeling Approaches to Measure Women's Health
We invite applicants to explore bold, innovative approaches. Specifically, the objectives of the Challenge will be to:
- Reimagine new ways to understand and measure women's health that extend beyond the limitations of existing composite indicators such as DALY.
- Use existing data sets or easily collectible datasets to quantify women's health outcomes across countries. While this Grand Challenge does not fund large-scale data collection, proposals may include small-scale data expansion where it is feasible, policy-relevant, and significantly enhances gendered analysis.
- Design innovative methodologies that incorporate gendered, socio-cultural, economic, and structural determinants of health, ensuring a comprehensive gender-sensitive approach (A gender-sensitive approach takes into consideration how one's gender impacts access to services, risk and protective factors and barriers that are uniquely experienced because of one's gender in a society).
- Create tools or frameworks that enable cross-cultural or subnational comparative analysis, identifying context-specific gaps and progress.
- Reflect the interconnected dimensions of women's health across the life course
- Incorporate gaps in the measurement of:
- Skills, knowledge, and networks: addressing how gender disparities in education, training, and professional networks impact health access, decision-making, and service delivery.
- Supply and access to services: examining how health systems, financing mechanisms, and gender-based barriers affect the availability, affordability, and accessibility of essential services for women
- Health and economic impacts: capturing the intersection of health outcomes with economic participation, caregiving burdens, workforce inclusion, and financial independence.
- Produce outputs that are:
- Methodologically rigorous: applying sound data science, statistical modeling, or analytical techniques that enhance the validity and reliability of women's health measurements.
- Interpretable and actionable: ensuring results can be understood and applied by policymakers and implementers.
- Comparative and scalable: enabling cross-cultural or subnational analysis to identify patterns, disparities, and opportunities for intervention.
- Gender-sensitive and intersectional: incorporating the social, economic, and structural determinants that affect women's health outcomes.
- Policy-relevant and decision-oriented: providing insights that have the potential to directly inform policies, resource allocation, or program design to improve women's health measurement and action.
Reducing the Burden of Preeclampsia
We seek proposals for innovative solutions for the early detection, prevention, and treatment of preeclampsia, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where maternal mortality rates are high. To support this focus, we are looking for collaborations, including those with research institutions, health care providers, and global health organizations, that enable cross-sector insights and ensure that solutions are adaptable and practical.
The objectives of the challenge are:
- Early prediction and detection of preeclampsia. We seek biomarkers (including other than sFlt1 and PlGF), diagnostic tests, and point-of-care technologies to predict early in pregnancy the risk of preeclampsia and to diagnose it before symptoms become severe.
- Understanding the pathophysiology of preeclampsia and its heterogeneity. We seek to understand the biological mechanisms driving the disease and its subtypes so that new interventions can be effectively tailored to the underlying etiology.
- Preventive and therapeutic interventions. We seek new approaches to known targets or new targets to reduce the incidence and severity of preeclampsia, mitigate disease progression, and prevent the cardiovascular and metabolic complications that often follow it.
External Deadline:
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Funding Source:
External
Funding Level:
Research