Infectious diseases focus of research for vaccines

Infectious diseases are still a large cause of death around the world even though scientists have made major advancements in treating these diseases since the 1920s. Fierce Biotech states that there are currently 395 currently in the late stage of development, which means they are being reviewed by the FDA. Doctors are currently seeing that many of the diseases which currently have vaccines and medications are mutating and "Super Bugs" are forming. These drug-resistant viruses are increasing. In addition to working on those medicines and vaccines, scientists are taking a particular interest in diseases affecting third world countries including developing world, such as the Ebola virus, dengue fever, yellow fever, typhoid and cholera.

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Gates Foundations supporting innovation in medical research

There are 81 unusual projects in the medical world receiving a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They will be focusing on new and innovative ways to focus on preventing and treating infectious diseases. The 81 projects received a grant of $100,000 in five-year health research grants.

Some of the projects:

The foundation said grant recipient Eric Lam at Rutgers University in New Jersey is exploring tomatoes as a antiviral drug delivery system.

Researchers at the University of Exeter in Devon, England, will seek to build an inexpensive instrument to diagnose malaria by using magnets to detect the waste products of the malaria parasite in human blood.

Mei Wu at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School will be getting a grant to see if shooting a laser at a person's skin before administering a vaccine can enhance immune response.

And Thomas Baker at Pennsylvania State University wants to see if malaria-carrying mosquitoes can be infected with a fungus that would act like a cold, suppressing the sense of smell that they use to find people as sources of blood.

Source: Yahoo!

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