Solving grand challenges
The University of Melbourne has won a Grand Challenges Explorations grant – an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – for groundbreaking research in global health and development.
Professor Muthupandian Ashokkumar – along with Dr Srinivas Mettu and Dr Francesca Cavalieri – will use the funding to pursue an innovative global health and development research project, titled "Edible Micro-Balloons for Nutrition Enhancement", aimed at relieving malnutrition among mothers and infants in developing countries. The team initially reported their work in Soft Matter and RSC Advances, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE) grants support innovative thinkers worldwide to explore ideas that can break the mold in how we solve persistent global health and development challenges. Professor Ashokkumar’s project is one of 34 Grand Challenges Explorations Round 21 grants announced by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
To receive funding, Professor Ashokkumar’s team and other Grand Challenges Explorations winners demonstrated in a two-page online application a bold idea in one of three critical global heath and development topic areas. The foundation will be accepting applications for the next GCE round in February, 2019.
The grant will allow the team to produce edible microballoons made from protein that contain essential nutrients for adding to common foods to combat malnutrition in mothers and infants. They have developed a method that uses ultrasound waves to encapsulate oil- and water-soluble vitamins and minerals within edible shells made from a range of proteins including milk and pea proteins. Encapsulating the nutrients, rather than adding them directly to food, helps keep them stable and promotes their absorption in the body. It can also mask unpleasant tastes, and control the timing and location of nutrient release, which can increase their performance.
Professor Ashokkumar said: "We are very grateful to the Gates Foundation for awarding us this grant funding, allowing us to take our work to the next stage. We also appreciate the support of the Royal Society of Chemistry in publishing our research over the last few years as this was essential in drawing attention to the potential benefits of the method we are developing."
Dr Laura Fisher, Deputy Editor of Soft Matter, said: "It’s very rewarding for us to see how this project has progressed over the years through the pages of our journals, resulting now in this major grant that we sincerely hope will result in developments that could save lives across the world."
Read the Royal Society of Chemistry articles that led to the funding
"Ultrasonically synthesized organic liquid-filled chitosan microcapsules: part 1: tuning physical & functional properties", Qianyu Ye et al., Soft Matter, 2018, 14 3202–3208. DOI: 10.1039/C8SM00064F
"Ultrasonically synthesized organic liquid-filled chitosan microcapsules: part 2: characterization using AFM (atomic force microscopy) and combined AFM–confocal laser scanning fluorescence microscopy", Srinivas Mettu et al., Soft Matter, 2018, 14, 3192–3201. DOI: 10.1039/C8SM00065D
"Ultrasonic synthesis of stable oil filled microcapsules using thiolated chitosan and their characterization by AFM and numerical simulations", Sinuo Tan et al., Soft Matter, 2016, 12, 7212–7222. DOI: 10.1039/C6SM01402J
"Modification of pea protein isolate for ultrasonic encapsulation of functional liquids", Qianyu Ye et al., RSC Adv., 2016, 6, 106130–106140. DOI: 10.1039/C6RA17585F
About Grand Challenges Explorations
Grand Challenges Explorations is a US$100 million initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Launched in 2008, over 1400 projects in more than 65 countries have received Grand Challenges Explorations grants. The grant program is open to anyone from any discipline and from any organization. The initiative uses an agile, accelerated grant-making process with short two-page online applications and no preliminary data required. Initial grants of US$100,000 are awarded two times per year. Successful projects have the opportunity to receive a follow-on grant of up to US$1 million.
About the University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is Australia’s largest research-intensive university. Consistently ranked among the world’s top 40, it attracts the best and brightest from around the world. As a globally engaged university renowned for quality teaching and high-impact research, the University of Melbourne is committed to sharing advances that contribute to society and have a broad ripple effect.
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