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Gates Foundation backs UB initiative

Business First - by Tracey Drury
Date: Monday, May 9, 2011

A global health research project by University at Buffalo researchers was selected to receive funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The project by Glenna Bett, an assistant professor and vice chair for research in the department of gynecology-obstetrics in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, was selected as a winner of the foundation’s Grand Challenges Explorations initiative. The initiative funds scientists and researchers worldwide to explore ideas that can break the mold in how persistent global health and development challenges are solved.

The project, one of 85 projects funded in round six of the grant program, will focus on developing a device to treat postpartum hemorrhage, was. The award includes a $100,000 initial research grant. Successful projects have the opportunity to receive a second grant of up to $1 million.

Bett’s co-principal investigator on the grant is Randall Rasmusson, an associate professor in the UB department of physiology and biophysics. The device will be designed for use even when medical facilities are absent or minimal, and in non-sterile environments. If successful, the device could have the potential to reduce perinatal deaths worldwide.

Grand Challenges Explorations, a $100 million initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, projects must focus on one of five critical global health and development topics: polio eradication, HIV, sanitation and family health technologies and mobile health. The grants are meant to spur new discoveries. Since its launch in 2008, grants have been awarded to nearly 500 researchers in more than 40 countries.