A grand solution: How to help 1 billion people with Canadian-African partnership

Grand challenge: Improving the health of billions in Africa

Recently, MaRS tenant, Grand Challenges Canada announced their first grant recipient and Grand Challenge winner.

Dr. Timothy Geary of McGill University was awarded $1 million for his landmark research into addressing parasitic diseases through medicines derived from African biodiversity.

Dr. Geary is pursuing research in partnership with Dr. Eliane Ubalijoro also of McGill University, Dr. Kelly Chibale of the University of Cape Town and Dr. Berhanu Abegaz and Dr. Kerstin Marobela of the University of Botswana. This partnership recognizes the knowledge and expertise of professionals from disease-endemic nations as essential in the search for appropriate, sustainable solutions.

Grand Challenges Canada is an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving the health and well-being of people in developing countries by integrating scientific, technological, business and social innovation and is hosted by the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health.

In partnership with Canada’s International Development Research Centre, The Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the grant will fund work that aims to address the more than 1 billion people who suffer from neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), which cause disfigurement, disability and even death in the developing world.

Grand Challenges Canada will launch four more Grand Challenges over the next few years, the next one hopes to create a new class of point-of-care diagnostics.

Could yours be the next grand solution?