Conducted by Prof. Michael K. Chan, director of the School of Life Sciences, the research project entitled 'Novel Dawadawa Therapy for Intestinal Helminthic Infections' received a US$100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Professor Chan and his collaborator, Dr. Manoj Nair of Ohio State University, plan to engineer a new formulation of dawadawa, a staple food in western Africa, which can be used to treat and prevent infections by soil-transmitted nematodes. It will help to make the newly formulated dawadawa a potentially effective product for preventing intestinal kelminthic infections at low cost.

'We are extremely enthusiastic about receiving this grant as it will allow us to explore whether the novel technologies we are developing can be used to treat infectious disease,' said Professor Chan.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Explorations is an initiative to help scientists around the world explore bold and largely unproven ways to improve health in developing countries. Professor Chan is the third CUHK scientist to receive a grant from the foundation. Prof. Samuel S.M. Sun, Emeritus Professor, School of Life Sciences and Prof. Chen Yangchao of the School of Biomedical Sciences are the other two who have previously received the grant.

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