UB Receives $100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations Grant for Innovative Global Health Research

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo announced today that it has received a $100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The grant will support an innovative global health research project conducted by Anders Hakansson, Ph.D., UB assistant professor of microbiology and immunology in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, titled "HAMLET, a non-resistance-inducing bactericidal human milk protein."

Hakansson's project is one of 81 grants announced by the Gates Foundation in the second funding round of Grand Challenges Explorations (http://www.grandchallenges.org/explorations/Pages/Introduction.aspx), an initiative to help scientists around the world explore bold and largely unproven ways to improve health in developing countries. The grants were provided to scientists in 17 countries on six continents.

To receive funding, Hakansson showed in a two-page application how his idea falls outside current scientific paradigms and might lead to significant advances in global health. The initiative is highly competitive, receiving more than 3,000 proposals in this round.

Hakansson has identified a protein molecule in breast milk that kills respiratory tract bacteria, which could make it a potential therapy to treat a variety of infections. He will use the grant to continue his research while competing for a $1 million 5-year grant from the Gates Foundation.

The protein, known by the acronym HAMLET ("human alpha-lactalbumin made lethal to tumor cells") exhibits its highest activity against Streptococcus pneumonia, or pneumococcus, a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide.

"The pneumococcus is the main cause of ear infections in children, pneumonia in the elderly and sometimes causes invasive disease and meningitis," Hakansson said. "Despite the use of antibiotics and vaccines, we see millions of pneumococcal infections in the U.S. every year. Worldwide, approximately 1 million children die annually from pneumococcal disease. My laboratory is trying to better understand how these bacteria cause infection, so we can develop more effective preventive and therapeutic strategies."

To date, Hakansson's research group has shown that HAMLET kills antibiotic-resistant strains of pneumococci, indicating its mechanism is distinct from common antibiotics.

"In addition," said Hakansson, "we've shown in laboratory experiments that this bacterium does not develop resistance to HAMLET, suggesting that the anti-bacterial mechanism used by HAMLET can't be inactivated by spontaneous or adaptive mutations.

"These properties, combined with promising preliminary data indicating that this molecule prevents pneumococcal colonization in laboratory animals, tells us that understanding its death-inducing mechanism has enormous potential for developing anti-bacterial therapy that is less likely to develop resistance."

In addition to studying the molecule's mechanism of action and if it can be used to treat pneumonia, the researchers are developing model systems to study how the bacteria interact with human airway cells and what factors these cells use to defend themselves against bacterial assault.

"The winners of these grants are doing truly exciting and innovative work," said Tachi Yamada, M.D., president of the Gates Foundation's Global Health Program (http://www.gatesfoundation.org/global-health/Pages/overview.aspx). "I'm optimistic that some of these exploratory projects will lead to life-saving breakthroughs for people in the world's poorest countries."

About Grand Challenges Explorations

Grand Challenges Explorations is a 5-year, $100 million initiative of the Gates Foundation to promote innovation in global health. The program uses an agile, streamlined grant process -- applications are limited to two pages, and preliminary data are not required. Proposals are reviewed and selected by a committee of foundation staff and external experts, and grant decisions are made within approximately three months of the close of the funding round.

Applications for the next round of Grand Challenges Explorations are being accepted through May 28. Grant application instructions, including the list of topic areas in which proposals are currently being accepted, are available at the Grand Challenges Explorations Web site at http://www.grandchallenges.org/explorations/Pages/Introduction.aspx.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.