Apr. 29, 2013 ? A gas associated with the smell of rotten eggs has proven to effectively reduce joint swelling, in research which could lead to advances in the treatment of arthritis.
Scientists at the University of Exeter Medical School have discovered that a novel drug molecule, which slowly generates the gas hydrogen sulfide (H2S), effectively reduces swelling and inflammation in arthritic joints.
For years, H2S has been regarded as a highly poisonous by-product which is corrosive, flammable and explosive. But research is now showing an altogether more benign side to the substance.
Professor Matt Whiteman, of the University of Exeter Medical School, said the research, which is published online in the Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, could pave the way for more effective treatments of arthritis and other inflammatory conditions. Prof Whiteman said: "H2S is widely dismissed as a toxic and foul-smelling environmental pollutant, but it has recently been shown to be created in humans and animals by a specific set of enzymes. Why would the body do this if it had no benefit? Our research has shown that the key to unlocking the therapeutic qualities of H2S is through slow release, mimicking the body's own production."
The team has previously shown that H2S levels were increased by up to four times in the knee joints of patients with joint diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, but intriguingly the higher H2S levels strongly correlated with a lower number of inflammatory cells in the joint. The latest study provides further evidence that the real role for H2S may be to combat inflammation, swelling and joint destruction.
Prof Whiteman added: "A patient will usually visit their doctor with a joint already inflamed, swollen and painful. Since the compound worked after arthritis was established, it may be useful in treating arthritis in the future. Many compounds can prevent arthritis in the laboratory, but of course nobody knows when they will get arthritis. Having a class of compounds which reduce inflammation and swelling when arthritis is already active is extremely exciting. These molecules may also be useful in other inflammatory conditions, and even in the inflammatory aspects of diabetes and obesity."
The study was part of a large collaboration funded by the Wellcome Trust and Arthritis Research UK, involving Professor Philip K Moore and Dr Julie Keeble from King's College London, as well as researchers at the National University of Singapore and Queen's University Belfast. The team used primary human cells as well as a model of arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis causes some cells to proliferate too quickly in the joint and secrete substances which promote tissue inflammation, swelling and eventually joint destruction. However, the H2S donor molecule prevented this secretion, and inhibited the activity of several enzymes which cause inflation. In the arthritis model, the compound did not prevent arthritis, but was highly effective at reducing joint inflammation and swelling once arthritis was established, suggesting H2S-based compounds may one day be useful in clinic.
The same team has previously found that people who are overweight or have diabetes have lower levels of H2S in their bodies than healthy adults resulting in higher blood pressure, poorer insulin sensitivity and higher levels of sugar in their blood. It has also been reported to promote ulcer healing and reduce lung injury in smokers.
Co-author Dr Mark E Wood, at the University of Exeter, added: "Despite its reputation for being hazardous, H2S could in fact hold the key to solving some of the widespread health problems affecting the country. Our work is a major step in proving that it can be more hero than villain to the human body, providing it is administered in the right way, at the right time. We currently have several more efficient H2S donor molecules being evaluated with collaborators and this is a very exciting time for us."
Dr Julie Keeble, co-author from King's College London, commented: "The finding that H2S is able to reduce joint inflammation in experimental models makes it a very exciting prospect for treating arthritis. Many patients with arthritis do not respond effectively to current treatments or suffer side-effects from their medication. We hope that H2S-releasing drugs like the one tested in this study will be effective in treating arthritis without uncomfortable side effects."
Prof Whiteman is organising the Second European Conference on the Biology of Hydrogen Sulfide at the University of Exeter between September 8 and 11. It will bring together European scientists and participants from across the world to focus on the rapidly expanding and exciting field of H2S biology and medicine.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Exeter.
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Journal Reference:
Ling Li, Bridget Fox, Julie Keeble, Manuel Salto-Tellez, Paul G. Winyard, Mark E. Wood, Philip K. Moore, Matthew Whiteman. The complex effects of the slow-releasing hydrogen sulfide donor GYY4137 in a model of acute joint inflammation and in human cartilage cells. Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, 2013; 17 (3): 365 DOI: 10.1111/jcmm.12016
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Inventive: 102 bold new global health ideaswin Grand Challenges Canada fundingPublic release date: 29-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Terry Collins tc@tca.tc 416-538-8712 Sandra Rotman Centre for Global Health
59 creative, out-of-box health innovations devised in 13 low- and middle-income countries, plus 43 from Canada, share $10.9 million in seed grants and a single goal: Reduce debilitating disease, save lives in developing countries
Grand Challenges Canada, which is funded by the Government of Canada, today announced 102 new grants of $100,000 each for bold new global health ideas. Of these, 59 grants went to innovators in 13 low- and middle-income nations worldwide to pursue bold new imaginative ideas to tackle health problems in resource-poor countries.
Grants of $100,000 each were also announced for 43 Canadian-originated projects to be implemented in a total of 49 countries throughout the developing world.
The full global portfolio of 102 creative, out-of-the-box ideas, selected by independent peer review from 436 applications, include:
An instant test strip to diagnose deadly diseases like Ebola and dengue la litmus paper
A vaccine for smokers against nicotine's addictive effect
A glucose meter cell phone attachment for diabetics
A tool kit to save newborn lives
Engineering gut microbiome bacteria to defend against waterborne diseases like cholera and thyphoid
Teaching old drugs new tricks in the fight against HIV
Saving mothers and children with affordable, needle-free anemia-screening
Using mobile phones to monitor maternal and child health in rural Nepal
* A fast track to safer pesticides via super-computer
Tapping local businesses in Tanzania: Malaria drugs on wheels
Reading ultrasound images of rural patients via cyberspace
and many others.
The Stars in Global Health program seeks breakthrough and affordable innovations that could transform the way disease is treated in the developing world -- innovations that may benefit the health of developed world citizens as well. A total of roughly CDN $10.9 million will support the global portfolio of projects, broken down by region and country as follows (and detailed here: http://bit.ly/11755Fw):
40 projects based in seven African countries (14 in Kenya, 10 in Uganda, seven in Tanzania, three in Ethiopia, and two each in Ghana, Nigeria and Rwanda)
19 projects based in six countries in Asia (10 in India, four in Pakistan, two in Nepal, and one each in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Vietnam)
43 projects based in 16 Canadian cities (12 in Toronto, six in Montreal, three in Saskatoon and Calgary, two in Vancouver, Ottawa, Waterloo, Sudbury, Hamilton, Victoria, and Edmonton, and one in Guelph, London, Kitchener, Winnipeg and Halifax)
The 43 Canadian-based projects will be implemented worldwide:
22 countries in Africa (Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Togo, Tanzania, Uganda, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe)
17 countries in Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea)
8 countries in South and Latin America (Brazil, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru)
2 countries in the Middle East (Egypt and Jordan). Several projects will be implemented simultaneously in more than one country.
"Our government is focused on what matters most to Canadians -- jobs, growth and long-term prosperity," says Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird. "We are pleased to work with our like-minded partners around the world to support global innovation and entrepreneurship that help produce better, brighter futures for people around the world."
"Canada's commitment to bold ideas with big impact is captured in each of these more than 100 peer-reviewed projects," says Dr. Peter A. Singer, CEO of Grand Challenges Canada. "By matching talent with opportunity, Grand Challenges Canada is contributing to saving and improving lives."
If their ideas prove effective, the innovators will be eligible for an additional Grand Challenges Canada scale-up funding of up to $1 million.
Today's grants will advance bold new ideas in remote diagnostics and monitoring, health protection, drug and vaccine development and accessibility, and many others.
Among highlights of grants announced today:
A cheap, instant test strip to diagnose deadly diseases la litmus paper (Canada, Brazil, Uganda)
(project videos: http://bit.ly/XOXa0L and http://bit.ly/XYebrm)
Malaria is the tropics' most widespread infectious disease but #2 is dengue - also transmitted by mosquitos - affecting 50 to 100 million people across 110 countries every year, leading to about 500,000 annual hospitalizations and 25,000 deaths due to fever and shock. Early diagnosis significantly improves chances of survival.
DNA tests on blood samples are reliable but expensive, time-consuming and inaccessible for many -- and patients, mostly children, often resist submitting to needles.
Brazilian-born Dr. Alexandre Brolo of the University of Victoria, Canada, will lead development of a low-cost plastic strip containing gold nanoparticles that, in combination with a hand-held device, will allow for instant, bedside detection of the disease using the patient's saliva, much like a litmus paper test for alkalinity. To be tested in Brazil, the project's target cost per strip is 10 for a penny; cost of the reader, less than $10.
A similar project in Uganda aims to develop a paper-strip test for the rare but deadly Ebola and Marburg viruses that occasionally plague Equatorial Africa. Project leader Dr. Misaki Wayengera of the Makerere University College of Health Sciences notes that the highly infectious nature of both Ebola and Marburg, poor epidemiological data on their origins, and high mortality makes both diseases major global threats. Hard to detect in early days of an outbreak in communities where quarantine criteria are poor, the diseases present a danger to all, especially health workers.
A vaccine for smokers against nicotine's addictive effect (Canada, Vietnam)
(video: http://bit.ly/11trSf0)
Tobacco products are the main cause of lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, and reproductive disorders, as well as nearly 6 million premature deaths annually. Treating tobacco and cigarette-related illness and disease places a huge burden on the global health-care system. Young people in developing countries constitute a disproportionate percentage of the world's more than 1 billion smokers.
Led by Hoang-Thanh Le of the Advanced Medical Research Institute of Canada, the affiliated research institute of Health Sciences North in Sudbury, Canada, researchers believe they have developed a way to reduce nicotine use and its related health effects: a vaccine administered via the nose.
The team has been working with a nicotine-derived compound administered via the nose that prevents inhaled nicotine from reaching the brain via the blood stream, thereby robbing nicotine of its potent and addictive effect. The researchers envision the technology deployed eventually against other addictions and diseases as well.
In tests to be conducted early next year in mice, and in collaboration with a Pasteur institute in Vietnam, researchers anticipate a 90% or greater reduction of blood stream nicotine reaching the brains of test animals.
Teaching old drugs new tricks in the fight against HIV (Uganda)
(video: http://bit.ly/15vmNb6)
Led by Dr. David Meya of Uganda's Infectious Disease Institute at Makerere University's College of Health Sciences researchers will test whether the addition of an off-patent antidepressant drug called sertraline to standard therapy will reduce the rate of early death from cryptococcal meningitis. The hope is based on sertraline's potent fungicidal effect documented in lab work.
In Africa, deaths caused by cryptococcal meningitis (CM) rivals tuberculosis. While survival rates have improved, more than 30% of patients die early -- within 10-weeks of onset.
Existing pharmaceutical and safety data already exist for sertraline, streamlining its potential new deployment against CM.
Saving mothers and children with affordable, needle-free anemia-screening (India, Canada, Egypt)
(video: http://bit.ly/ZH9j4c and http://bit.ly/11rXFyk)
Anemia -- low red blood cell counts due to childbirth and inadequate nutrition -- affects 1.6 billion people worldwide and causes more than 1 million deaths a year. Most patients are in the developing world, especially Africa and South Asia. Anemia's cures are well known, simple, inexpensive and widely available -- the problem is timely detection, regular monitoring and compliance with treatment.
In many low resource settings today, where standard $10,000+ lab machines operated by highly-skilled technicians are days away, testing often consists of drawing blood into a test tube, mixing it with acid and distilled water and assessing its color. Needed is the empowerment of village health workers with an effective, low-cost tool.
Researchers in India, led by Dr. Myshkin Ingawale of Biosense Technologies will provide social health activists with a simple, needle-free, hand-held, battery-operated device, called "ToucHb." Attached to a finger, it can determine in 20 seconds the patient's haemoglobin, oxygen saturation and heart rate -- a simple test at the patient's doorstep involving no needles or pain.
The project's goal is to have within 18 months a model of the device ready to scale with the help of governments and NGOs.
Another project in Canada and Egypt is also focused on blood cell counts, a basic indicator of cardiovascular disease, blood disorders or infection, leukemia (~3 million cases annually), malaria (~200M cases) and tuberculosis (~9M cases).
Making fast, affordable (~10 cents per test) blood tests widely available in developing countries is the aim of a team in Toronto and Egypt led by University of Toronto Professor Yu Sun. Among project ambitions: low-cost, easy to use and disposable. Test results will be verified against commercial hematology analyzers.
Using mobile phones to monitor maternal and child health in rural Nepal
(video: http://bit.ly/12xABPU)
In much of South Asia, public sector health care is of low quality and hard to access, leaving many poor people at the mercy of unregulated, relatively expensive private sector providers.
Harvard researcher Duncan Maru, MD, PhD and a team of rural practitioners from an organization he created, Nyaya Health, are creating a mobile phone system for remote, rural community health workers to upload and publish data on both illness and local public health care capacity. Project partners include technology NGOs MedicMobile and HealthMap.
Being undertaken in Nepal's mountainous rural Achham district northwest of Kathmandu, the project represents the first real-time surveillance system of available care services and relates it to health outcomes (maternal and child health conditions).
Data is being collected on children under five years old suffering diarrhoea, acute respiratory tract infections, acute malnutrition, newborns and post-partum women. Also being gathered weekly is data from each public sector clinic on staffing, water and electricity supplies, and relevant medicines.
After this feasibility and validation study, the project will explore how such data can be used at national levels for more effective health programming and response to evolving health needs.
Reading ultrasound images of rural patients via cyberspace (India, Uganda)
(video: http://bit.ly/13p0fVS and http://bit.ly/15vpwBC and http://bit.ly/10rD5kS)
Ultrasound technology, perhaps most familiar for its use in fetal imaging, is an essential diagnostic tool in many emergency situations but unavailable to 70 percent of patients in need worldwide. Ultrasound machines are now portable, however, and can be used to diagnose a wide range of disease conditions, including breast cancer, even in the most remote locations.
Sanjoe Jose and colleagues at Emprenure Labs, India, are aiming to take ultrasound technology to a new level of portability with an probe connected to a mobile smartphone from which images are uploaded through cellular networks to a cloud server for remote expert interpretation. The system would provide real time images and low-cost probable diagnoses to end users anywhere in the world.
The requirement for heavy duty processors used in expensive western systems would be eliminated through the use of cloud computing. Trials will be run in 10 remote health clinics with units linked to an expert sonographer and radiologist.
Meanwhile, low-cost, easy-to-perform ultrasound scans to detect early cancer will improve survival prospects for many women in rural Uganda, where the 5-year survival rate for a late stage breast cancer case is 39% compared to 74% for early stage.
A grant to Imaging the World (ITW) and led by Ugandan Dr. Alphonsus Matovu, aims to bring ultrasound training, technology and telemedicine to rural parts of low income countries, promising cost-effective, sustainable breast cancer detection and remote diagnosis and greater breast cancer awareness.
ITW will train frontline health workers with limited knowledge of anatomy or pathology to generate ultrasound images using low-cost, low-power machines and send them via local cellular telephone networks to the Internet for remote expert interpretation. Findings and recommendations are sent back to the rural clinics as text messages or emails -- a model successfully developed and tested for obstetric ultrasound imaging in rural Uganda, with implementation at 11 different healthcare facilities.
Also tapping into the new power of cellular telephone networks to improve health, a team led by Dr. Ash Parameswaran of Canada's Simon Fraser University in Burnaby is developing a portable, low-cost (target: less than $5) instrument that can be fitted to any cell phone to quickly identify the correct antibiotic to effectively treat infantile diarrhea in remote areas. Even with access to powerful antibiotics, many infants in developing countries die due to an inability to determine the right drug at the right time.
Portable, mosquito-free huts to protect itinerant African rice farmers (Tanzania)
(video: http://bit.ly/XOXAUL)
Every year, thousands of subsistence rice farmers in rural Africa spends months away from home cultivating rice in distant river valleys far from health facilities, bringing along young children and infants. They live in semi-open shacks that can't be readily fitted with bednets, exposing them to as many as 350 infectious insect bites yearly. Among these families, malaria prevalence can reach 40%.
A project led by Dr. Fredros Okumu of the Ifakara Health Institute, Tanzania, will manufacture and promote a portable, low-cost mosquito-proof hut for use in remote settings, an innovation that, he says, could eliminate 50-90% of transmission and help break a vicious cycle of poverty and disease.
The low-cost, lightweight, highly ventilated huts will be easy to transport, accommodate an average itinerant family, and paid for in cash or produce (equivalent to about 5% of an average family's rice production). Hut production will be localized to help lift village economies.
A fast track to safer pesticides via super-computer (Canada, Philippines)
(video: http://bit.ly/11tq7ji and http://bit.ly/XYdGh3)
Pesticides are essential to agriculture but they poison an estimated 26 million people every year, causing 220,000 deaths and countless cancers, birth defects and other health problems.
That's an unacceptable hidden cost of food that could be slashed via breakthrough technology being developed by Chematria, a start-up Canadian company.
Using massive computer databases, the scientists say they can now create millions of virtual compounds and predict both their toxicity to people and the efficacy of the pesticides early in development, well before experimental tests involving human impacts. The innovation will also help reduce pesticide costs by narrowing chemical choices and shortening development time.
Says project leader Izhar Wallach (whose work is partnered with Dr. Marlon Manalo from the University of Philippines Los Banos): "We will screen for safety and efficacy the tens of millions of compound structures available in our chemical databases, rather than the hundreds of thousands of compounds typically investigated in experimental pesticide screens. Dr. Manalo will experimentally validate the most promising candidates and will lead small-scale field experiments. Within 18 months, we will have proposed a number of compounds to our collaborator for further development."
The Toronto innovators will also use the same super-computer techniques to identify potential new uses for existing drugs and chemical combinations in hopes of repurposing some of them to treat malaria and, one day, the more than 6,000 neglected diseases in resource-poor countries.
Dr. Wallach notes that historically discoveries of alternative uses for drugs have been more serendipitous than systematic. But there are many examples. The antihistamine astemizole, for one, proved effective against malaria while Viagra was first intended as a hypertension drug.
"All medicines have side-effects, but sometimes those effects are beneficial: People take aspirin for headaches, but they also take aspirin to prevent heart disease. We want to uncover those beneficial uses, " he says.
A survey of 30 pharmaceutical firms estimated the cost to develop a new drug at $1.3 billion over 10 to 15 years; to repurpose a previously approved drug for a new use: $8.4 million over 3 to 5 years.
Saving precious crops with eco-friendly "pesticidal plants" (Tanzania)
(video: http://bit.ly/ZdLdCy)
Pests destroy up to 40% of African grain crops, compounding rising problems due by inadequate and changing rainfall patterns. About 30% of stored maize -- the crop grown by 77% of farmers -- is lost due to maize weevils infestation.
Led by Basiliana Emidi of Tanzania's National Institute for Medical Research, researchers are testing a natural, eco-friendly product made from a combination of "pesticidal plants" -- their recipe having been shown in tests to destroy maize weevils and inhibit the growth of a toxin-producing fungi.
Within 18 months, the project aims to answer food security and nutrition questions, as well as community acceptability of the dual pesticide -- a product with a large potential market.
Bringing education into focus in Vietnam
(video: http://bit.ly/11tstxt)
The World Health Organization estimates 158 million people worldwide are visually impaired or disabled (including 8.7 million people who are blind) due to uncorrected refractive errors (e.g., myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism). Of that total, about 62 million reside in the Asia-Pacific region. And much of the problem could be prevented with increased awareness and access to affordable services.
Eye health among schoolchildren is a neglected issue in Vietnam. One in five Vietnamese children suffers from refractive error, yet the vast majority remain undiagnosed and untreated due to a lack of coordinated efforts between the health and education sectors.
Led by Ngoc Pham of Helen Keller International, the ChildSight Vietnam project will enhance and expand efforts to improve the vision of schoolchildren in partnership with private optic shops in Kon Tum Province.
At least 10,000 kids - roughly 10% of all schoolchildren in Kon Tum -- will be screened and a qualified optic shop network will be established throughout the province to ensure children receive quality eyeglasses.
Addressing the rising toll of deadly road accidents in developing countries (Nepal, Kenya)
(video: http://bit.ly/XYdNco and http://bit.ly/ZBHkHm)
In Nepal, more then 9,000 people have died and almost 20,000 were seriously injured in 54,000 traffic crashes in the past 10 years. Among the goals of project led by Pitambar Aryal of Nepal's Integrated Community Development Movement: creating roadside response teams to provide more timely first aid and search and rescue services, and promote helmet and seatbelt use.
In Kenya, meanwhile, motorcycles sales have surged and road crashes are now the 3rd leading cause of death after malaria and HIV/AIDS. The 'Reward N Conquer" project led by Kenyan Pamela Muthuuri will use mobile phone apps to promote helmet use and road safety.
Changing the sanitation script in the slums of Nairobi and Kampala (Kenya, Uganda)
(video: http://bit.ly/ZBHpdS and http://bit.ly/YDCJkH)
The film Slumdog Millionaire included vivid scenes of outdoor community pit latrines in Mumbai's wretched slums, which are common also in Kenya's large slums, as is the "flying toilet" -- human waste thrown outside in a bag. Joy Kiruki and brother Patrick Kiruki of Kenya hopes to change the script for the poor in Kenya's urban metropolis, installing up to 500 novel in-home toilets that allow users to hygienically dispose of human waste in privacy. Waste is collected in a compostable bag stored odor-free in the toilet. The system includes collection services together with health and sanitation education.
In Uganda, meanwhile, almost all human waste is discharged into bodies of water causing huge health problems. Researchers led by Dr. Corinne Schuster-Wallace of UN University's Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health, will initiate the first steps in a proposed national program to collect and transform human and other waste into an energy and revenue-producing bio-gas. Supported by Canadian firms Anaergia Inc. (Ontario) and Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc. (British Columbia) eventual implementation will involve large underground tanks to mulch human waste along with fish market refuse and other organic trash. Methane from the tanks will be tapped for a new economical source of fuel. A recent study concluded that a sanitation system for 400,000 people in Kampala's urban slums can be run without subsidies by marketing wastewater products.
A mobile phone game and text messages to raise awareness of HIV's dangers (Kenya)
(video: http://bit.ly/11daydZ and http://bit.ly/17EGpGB)
A game-based approach to improving health will be tested in Kenya led by researcher Pam Muthuuri: a mobile phone role-playing game will raise awareness about HIV's dangers among girls and anticipate propositions from "sugar daddies." A complementary project, led by Dr. Njambi Njuguna of Kenyatta National Hospital, Kenya, will send with HIV-related mobile phone text messages to young females, many of whom do not perceive themselves to be at risk and thus don't test. In Kenya, 84% of HIV-infected people are unaware of their status with 33% not testing because they don't perceive a risk to themselves.
Help for those caring for children with Africa's "nodding disease" (Uganda)
(video: http://bit.ly/14GL3YW)
Thousands of East African children aged 5 to 15 suffer from a mysterious, deadly affliction called "nodding disease," characterized by stunted physical and mental growth, as well as severe nodding or epileptic-like seizures or frozen motion most often brought on when the child eats or feels cold.
Helping the children by addressing the heavy toll on caregivers is the focus of a project headed by Dr. Byamah Mutamba of the National Referral Mental Hospital, Uganda. His aim is to "improve care through reducing adverse methods (e.g. physical restraints like tying them up on trees), improve help seeking, medication adherence, reduced stigma and discrimination and school (re)attendance. Using a lay-health worker led intervention will allow for culture appropriateness, improve access and utilization of health services."
Tapping local businesses: Malaria drugs on wheels (Tanzania)
(video: http://bit.ly/12xBtUC)
Over 90% of malaria deaths are children, of which 80% reside in rural areas.
Led by Daudi Simba of Tanzania's Muhimbili University, researchers will work to take advantage of a recent surge in motorcycle popularity in East Africa, putting them to work delivering anti-malaria drugs.
The project predicts that motorcycle deliveries will create near universal access (>80%) to effective malaria treatment in the test area 300 km west of Dar es Salaam, where about one-third of the 500,000 residents survive on less than $1 a day.
###
Other projects include:
A diabetes glucose meter cell phone attachment (http://bit.ly/13LDu2f)
A tool kit to save newborn lives (http://bit.ly/10to2qL)
Engineering gut microbiome bacteria to defend against waterborne diseases like cholera and thyphoid (http://bit.ly/17RHlud)
For a complete listing of projects by city and country, and more information on all grants, including short videos on each project, please visit grandchallenges.ca
To date, Grand Challenges Canada has funded 270 projects around the world. There have already been 451 applications in 40 different countries for the next (5th) round of funding under the GCC Stars in Global Health programme.
Grand Challenges Canada is funded by the Government of Canada through the Development
Innovation Fund announced in the 2008 Federal Budget.
Please visit grandchallenges.ca and look for us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.
About Grand Challenges Canada
Grand Challenges Canada is dedicated to supporting bold ideas with big impact in global health. We are funded by the Government of Canada through the Development Innovation Fund announced in the 2008 Federal Budget. We fund innovators in low and middle income countries and Canada. Grand Challenges Canada works with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and other global health foundations and organizations to find sustainable long-term solutions through integrated innovation - bold ideas which integrate science, technology, social and business innovation. Grand Challenges Canada is hosted at the Sandra Rotman Centre.
grandchallenges.ca
About Canada's International Development Research Centre
The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) supports research in developing countries to promote growth and development. IDRC also encourages sharing this knowledge with policymakers, other researchers and communities around the world. The result is innovative, lasting local solutions that aim to bring choice and change to those who need it most.
As the Government of Canada's lead on the Development Innovation Fund, IDRC draws on decades of experience managing publicly funded research projects to administer the Development Innovation Fund. IDRC also ensures that developing country researchers and concerns are front and centre in this exciting new initiative.
idrc.ca
About Canadian Institutes of Health Research
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is the Government of Canada's health research investment agency. CIHR's mission is to create new scientific knowledge and to enable its translation into improved health, more effective health services and products, and a strengthened Canadian health care system. Composed of 13 Institutes, CIHR provides leadership and support to more than 14,100 health researchers and trainees across Canada.
CIHR will be responsible for the administration of international peer review, according to international standards of excellence. The results of CIHR-led peer reviews will guide the awarding of grants by Grand Challenges Canada from the Development Innovation Fund.
cihr-irsc.gc.ca
About Sandra Rotman Centre
The Sandra Rotman Centre is based at University Health Network and University of Toronto. We develop innovative global health solutions and help bring them to scale where they are most urgently needed. The Sandra Rotman Centre hosts Grand Challenges Canada.
srcglobal.org
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Inventive: 102 bold new global health ideaswin Grand Challenges Canada fundingPublic release date: 29-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Terry Collins tc@tca.tc 416-538-8712 Sandra Rotman Centre for Global Health
59 creative, out-of-box health innovations devised in 13 low- and middle-income countries, plus 43 from Canada, share $10.9 million in seed grants and a single goal: Reduce debilitating disease, save lives in developing countries
Grand Challenges Canada, which is funded by the Government of Canada, today announced 102 new grants of $100,000 each for bold new global health ideas. Of these, 59 grants went to innovators in 13 low- and middle-income nations worldwide to pursue bold new imaginative ideas to tackle health problems in resource-poor countries.
Grants of $100,000 each were also announced for 43 Canadian-originated projects to be implemented in a total of 49 countries throughout the developing world.
The full global portfolio of 102 creative, out-of-the-box ideas, selected by independent peer review from 436 applications, include:
An instant test strip to diagnose deadly diseases like Ebola and dengue la litmus paper
A vaccine for smokers against nicotine's addictive effect
A glucose meter cell phone attachment for diabetics
A tool kit to save newborn lives
Engineering gut microbiome bacteria to defend against waterborne diseases like cholera and thyphoid
Teaching old drugs new tricks in the fight against HIV
Saving mothers and children with affordable, needle-free anemia-screening
Using mobile phones to monitor maternal and child health in rural Nepal
* A fast track to safer pesticides via super-computer
Tapping local businesses in Tanzania: Malaria drugs on wheels
Reading ultrasound images of rural patients via cyberspace
and many others.
The Stars in Global Health program seeks breakthrough and affordable innovations that could transform the way disease is treated in the developing world -- innovations that may benefit the health of developed world citizens as well. A total of roughly CDN $10.9 million will support the global portfolio of projects, broken down by region and country as follows (and detailed here: http://bit.ly/11755Fw):
40 projects based in seven African countries (14 in Kenya, 10 in Uganda, seven in Tanzania, three in Ethiopia, and two each in Ghana, Nigeria and Rwanda)
19 projects based in six countries in Asia (10 in India, four in Pakistan, two in Nepal, and one each in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Vietnam)
43 projects based in 16 Canadian cities (12 in Toronto, six in Montreal, three in Saskatoon and Calgary, two in Vancouver, Ottawa, Waterloo, Sudbury, Hamilton, Victoria, and Edmonton, and one in Guelph, London, Kitchener, Winnipeg and Halifax)
The 43 Canadian-based projects will be implemented worldwide:
22 countries in Africa (Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Togo, Tanzania, Uganda, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe)
17 countries in Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea)
8 countries in South and Latin America (Brazil, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru)
2 countries in the Middle East (Egypt and Jordan). Several projects will be implemented simultaneously in more than one country.
"Our government is focused on what matters most to Canadians -- jobs, growth and long-term prosperity," says Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird. "We are pleased to work with our like-minded partners around the world to support global innovation and entrepreneurship that help produce better, brighter futures for people around the world."
"Canada's commitment to bold ideas with big impact is captured in each of these more than 100 peer-reviewed projects," says Dr. Peter A. Singer, CEO of Grand Challenges Canada. "By matching talent with opportunity, Grand Challenges Canada is contributing to saving and improving lives."
If their ideas prove effective, the innovators will be eligible for an additional Grand Challenges Canada scale-up funding of up to $1 million.
Today's grants will advance bold new ideas in remote diagnostics and monitoring, health protection, drug and vaccine development and accessibility, and many others.
Among highlights of grants announced today:
A cheap, instant test strip to diagnose deadly diseases la litmus paper (Canada, Brazil, Uganda)
(project videos: http://bit.ly/XOXa0L and http://bit.ly/XYebrm)
Malaria is the tropics' most widespread infectious disease but #2 is dengue - also transmitted by mosquitos - affecting 50 to 100 million people across 110 countries every year, leading to about 500,000 annual hospitalizations and 25,000 deaths due to fever and shock. Early diagnosis significantly improves chances of survival.
DNA tests on blood samples are reliable but expensive, time-consuming and inaccessible for many -- and patients, mostly children, often resist submitting to needles.
Brazilian-born Dr. Alexandre Brolo of the University of Victoria, Canada, will lead development of a low-cost plastic strip containing gold nanoparticles that, in combination with a hand-held device, will allow for instant, bedside detection of the disease using the patient's saliva, much like a litmus paper test for alkalinity. To be tested in Brazil, the project's target cost per strip is 10 for a penny; cost of the reader, less than $10.
A similar project in Uganda aims to develop a paper-strip test for the rare but deadly Ebola and Marburg viruses that occasionally plague Equatorial Africa. Project leader Dr. Misaki Wayengera of the Makerere University College of Health Sciences notes that the highly infectious nature of both Ebola and Marburg, poor epidemiological data on their origins, and high mortality makes both diseases major global threats. Hard to detect in early days of an outbreak in communities where quarantine criteria are poor, the diseases present a danger to all, especially health workers.
A vaccine for smokers against nicotine's addictive effect (Canada, Vietnam)
(video: http://bit.ly/11trSf0)
Tobacco products are the main cause of lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, and reproductive disorders, as well as nearly 6 million premature deaths annually. Treating tobacco and cigarette-related illness and disease places a huge burden on the global health-care system. Young people in developing countries constitute a disproportionate percentage of the world's more than 1 billion smokers.
Led by Hoang-Thanh Le of the Advanced Medical Research Institute of Canada, the affiliated research institute of Health Sciences North in Sudbury, Canada, researchers believe they have developed a way to reduce nicotine use and its related health effects: a vaccine administered via the nose.
The team has been working with a nicotine-derived compound administered via the nose that prevents inhaled nicotine from reaching the brain via the blood stream, thereby robbing nicotine of its potent and addictive effect. The researchers envision the technology deployed eventually against other addictions and diseases as well.
In tests to be conducted early next year in mice, and in collaboration with a Pasteur institute in Vietnam, researchers anticipate a 90% or greater reduction of blood stream nicotine reaching the brains of test animals.
Teaching old drugs new tricks in the fight against HIV (Uganda)
(video: http://bit.ly/15vmNb6)
Led by Dr. David Meya of Uganda's Infectious Disease Institute at Makerere University's College of Health Sciences researchers will test whether the addition of an off-patent antidepressant drug called sertraline to standard therapy will reduce the rate of early death from cryptococcal meningitis. The hope is based on sertraline's potent fungicidal effect documented in lab work.
In Africa, deaths caused by cryptococcal meningitis (CM) rivals tuberculosis. While survival rates have improved, more than 30% of patients die early -- within 10-weeks of onset.
Existing pharmaceutical and safety data already exist for sertraline, streamlining its potential new deployment against CM.
Saving mothers and children with affordable, needle-free anemia-screening (India, Canada, Egypt)
(video: http://bit.ly/ZH9j4c and http://bit.ly/11rXFyk)
Anemia -- low red blood cell counts due to childbirth and inadequate nutrition -- affects 1.6 billion people worldwide and causes more than 1 million deaths a year. Most patients are in the developing world, especially Africa and South Asia. Anemia's cures are well known, simple, inexpensive and widely available -- the problem is timely detection, regular monitoring and compliance with treatment.
In many low resource settings today, where standard $10,000+ lab machines operated by highly-skilled technicians are days away, testing often consists of drawing blood into a test tube, mixing it with acid and distilled water and assessing its color. Needed is the empowerment of village health workers with an effective, low-cost tool.
Researchers in India, led by Dr. Myshkin Ingawale of Biosense Technologies will provide social health activists with a simple, needle-free, hand-held, battery-operated device, called "ToucHb." Attached to a finger, it can determine in 20 seconds the patient's haemoglobin, oxygen saturation and heart rate -- a simple test at the patient's doorstep involving no needles or pain.
The project's goal is to have within 18 months a model of the device ready to scale with the help of governments and NGOs.
Another project in Canada and Egypt is also focused on blood cell counts, a basic indicator of cardiovascular disease, blood disorders or infection, leukemia (~3 million cases annually), malaria (~200M cases) and tuberculosis (~9M cases).
Making fast, affordable (~10 cents per test) blood tests widely available in developing countries is the aim of a team in Toronto and Egypt led by University of Toronto Professor Yu Sun. Among project ambitions: low-cost, easy to use and disposable. Test results will be verified against commercial hematology analyzers.
Using mobile phones to monitor maternal and child health in rural Nepal
(video: http://bit.ly/12xABPU)
In much of South Asia, public sector health care is of low quality and hard to access, leaving many poor people at the mercy of unregulated, relatively expensive private sector providers.
Harvard researcher Duncan Maru, MD, PhD and a team of rural practitioners from an organization he created, Nyaya Health, are creating a mobile phone system for remote, rural community health workers to upload and publish data on both illness and local public health care capacity. Project partners include technology NGOs MedicMobile and HealthMap.
Being undertaken in Nepal's mountainous rural Achham district northwest of Kathmandu, the project represents the first real-time surveillance system of available care services and relates it to health outcomes (maternal and child health conditions).
Data is being collected on children under five years old suffering diarrhoea, acute respiratory tract infections, acute malnutrition, newborns and post-partum women. Also being gathered weekly is data from each public sector clinic on staffing, water and electricity supplies, and relevant medicines.
After this feasibility and validation study, the project will explore how such data can be used at national levels for more effective health programming and response to evolving health needs.
Reading ultrasound images of rural patients via cyberspace (India, Uganda)
(video: http://bit.ly/13p0fVS and http://bit.ly/15vpwBC and http://bit.ly/10rD5kS)
Ultrasound technology, perhaps most familiar for its use in fetal imaging, is an essential diagnostic tool in many emergency situations but unavailable to 70 percent of patients in need worldwide. Ultrasound machines are now portable, however, and can be used to diagnose a wide range of disease conditions, including breast cancer, even in the most remote locations.
Sanjoe Jose and colleagues at Emprenure Labs, India, are aiming to take ultrasound technology to a new level of portability with an probe connected to a mobile smartphone from which images are uploaded through cellular networks to a cloud server for remote expert interpretation. The system would provide real time images and low-cost probable diagnoses to end users anywhere in the world.
The requirement for heavy duty processors used in expensive western systems would be eliminated through the use of cloud computing. Trials will be run in 10 remote health clinics with units linked to an expert sonographer and radiologist.
Meanwhile, low-cost, easy-to-perform ultrasound scans to detect early cancer will improve survival prospects for many women in rural Uganda, where the 5-year survival rate for a late stage breast cancer case is 39% compared to 74% for early stage.
A grant to Imaging the World (ITW) and led by Ugandan Dr. Alphonsus Matovu, aims to bring ultrasound training, technology and telemedicine to rural parts of low income countries, promising cost-effective, sustainable breast cancer detection and remote diagnosis and greater breast cancer awareness.
ITW will train frontline health workers with limited knowledge of anatomy or pathology to generate ultrasound images using low-cost, low-power machines and send them via local cellular telephone networks to the Internet for remote expert interpretation. Findings and recommendations are sent back to the rural clinics as text messages or emails -- a model successfully developed and tested for obstetric ultrasound imaging in rural Uganda, with implementation at 11 different healthcare facilities.
Also tapping into the new power of cellular telephone networks to improve health, a team led by Dr. Ash Parameswaran of Canada's Simon Fraser University in Burnaby is developing a portable, low-cost (target: less than $5) instrument that can be fitted to any cell phone to quickly identify the correct antibiotic to effectively treat infantile diarrhea in remote areas. Even with access to powerful antibiotics, many infants in developing countries die due to an inability to determine the right drug at the right time.
Portable, mosquito-free huts to protect itinerant African rice farmers (Tanzania)
(video: http://bit.ly/XOXAUL)
Every year, thousands of subsistence rice farmers in rural Africa spends months away from home cultivating rice in distant river valleys far from health facilities, bringing along young children and infants. They live in semi-open shacks that can't be readily fitted with bednets, exposing them to as many as 350 infectious insect bites yearly. Among these families, malaria prevalence can reach 40%.
A project led by Dr. Fredros Okumu of the Ifakara Health Institute, Tanzania, will manufacture and promote a portable, low-cost mosquito-proof hut for use in remote settings, an innovation that, he says, could eliminate 50-90% of transmission and help break a vicious cycle of poverty and disease.
The low-cost, lightweight, highly ventilated huts will be easy to transport, accommodate an average itinerant family, and paid for in cash or produce (equivalent to about 5% of an average family's rice production). Hut production will be localized to help lift village economies.
A fast track to safer pesticides via super-computer (Canada, Philippines)
(video: http://bit.ly/11tq7ji and http://bit.ly/XYdGh3)
Pesticides are essential to agriculture but they poison an estimated 26 million people every year, causing 220,000 deaths and countless cancers, birth defects and other health problems.
That's an unacceptable hidden cost of food that could be slashed via breakthrough technology being developed by Chematria, a start-up Canadian company.
Using massive computer databases, the scientists say they can now create millions of virtual compounds and predict both their toxicity to people and the efficacy of the pesticides early in development, well before experimental tests involving human impacts. The innovation will also help reduce pesticide costs by narrowing chemical choices and shortening development time.
Says project leader Izhar Wallach (whose work is partnered with Dr. Marlon Manalo from the University of Philippines Los Banos): "We will screen for safety and efficacy the tens of millions of compound structures available in our chemical databases, rather than the hundreds of thousands of compounds typically investigated in experimental pesticide screens. Dr. Manalo will experimentally validate the most promising candidates and will lead small-scale field experiments. Within 18 months, we will have proposed a number of compounds to our collaborator for further development."
The Toronto innovators will also use the same super-computer techniques to identify potential new uses for existing drugs and chemical combinations in hopes of repurposing some of them to treat malaria and, one day, the more than 6,000 neglected diseases in resource-poor countries.
Dr. Wallach notes that historically discoveries of alternative uses for drugs have been more serendipitous than systematic. But there are many examples. The antihistamine astemizole, for one, proved effective against malaria while Viagra was first intended as a hypertension drug.
"All medicines have side-effects, but sometimes those effects are beneficial: People take aspirin for headaches, but they also take aspirin to prevent heart disease. We want to uncover those beneficial uses, " he says.
A survey of 30 pharmaceutical firms estimated the cost to develop a new drug at $1.3 billion over 10 to 15 years; to repurpose a previously approved drug for a new use: $8.4 million over 3 to 5 years.
Saving precious crops with eco-friendly "pesticidal plants" (Tanzania)
(video: http://bit.ly/ZdLdCy)
Pests destroy up to 40% of African grain crops, compounding rising problems due by inadequate and changing rainfall patterns. About 30% of stored maize -- the crop grown by 77% of farmers -- is lost due to maize weevils infestation.
Led by Basiliana Emidi of Tanzania's National Institute for Medical Research, researchers are testing a natural, eco-friendly product made from a combination of "pesticidal plants" -- their recipe having been shown in tests to destroy maize weevils and inhibit the growth of a toxin-producing fungi.
Within 18 months, the project aims to answer food security and nutrition questions, as well as community acceptability of the dual pesticide -- a product with a large potential market.
Bringing education into focus in Vietnam
(video: http://bit.ly/11tstxt)
The World Health Organization estimates 158 million people worldwide are visually impaired or disabled (including 8.7 million people who are blind) due to uncorrected refractive errors (e.g., myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism). Of that total, about 62 million reside in the Asia-Pacific region. And much of the problem could be prevented with increased awareness and access to affordable services.
Eye health among schoolchildren is a neglected issue in Vietnam. One in five Vietnamese children suffers from refractive error, yet the vast majority remain undiagnosed and untreated due to a lack of coordinated efforts between the health and education sectors.
Led by Ngoc Pham of Helen Keller International, the ChildSight Vietnam project will enhance and expand efforts to improve the vision of schoolchildren in partnership with private optic shops in Kon Tum Province.
At least 10,000 kids - roughly 10% of all schoolchildren in Kon Tum -- will be screened and a qualified optic shop network will be established throughout the province to ensure children receive quality eyeglasses.
Addressing the rising toll of deadly road accidents in developing countries (Nepal, Kenya)
(video: http://bit.ly/XYdNco and http://bit.ly/ZBHkHm)
In Nepal, more then 9,000 people have died and almost 20,000 were seriously injured in 54,000 traffic crashes in the past 10 years. Among the goals of project led by Pitambar Aryal of Nepal's Integrated Community Development Movement: creating roadside response teams to provide more timely first aid and search and rescue services, and promote helmet and seatbelt use.
In Kenya, meanwhile, motorcycles sales have surged and road crashes are now the 3rd leading cause of death after malaria and HIV/AIDS. The 'Reward N Conquer" project led by Kenyan Pamela Muthuuri will use mobile phone apps to promote helmet use and road safety.
Changing the sanitation script in the slums of Nairobi and Kampala (Kenya, Uganda)
(video: http://bit.ly/ZBHpdS and http://bit.ly/YDCJkH)
The film Slumdog Millionaire included vivid scenes of outdoor community pit latrines in Mumbai's wretched slums, which are common also in Kenya's large slums, as is the "flying toilet" -- human waste thrown outside in a bag. Joy Kiruki and brother Patrick Kiruki of Kenya hopes to change the script for the poor in Kenya's urban metropolis, installing up to 500 novel in-home toilets that allow users to hygienically dispose of human waste in privacy. Waste is collected in a compostable bag stored odor-free in the toilet. The system includes collection services together with health and sanitation education.
In Uganda, meanwhile, almost all human waste is discharged into bodies of water causing huge health problems. Researchers led by Dr. Corinne Schuster-Wallace of UN University's Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health, will initiate the first steps in a proposed national program to collect and transform human and other waste into an energy and revenue-producing bio-gas. Supported by Canadian firms Anaergia Inc. (Ontario) and Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc. (British Columbia) eventual implementation will involve large underground tanks to mulch human waste along with fish market refuse and other organic trash. Methane from the tanks will be tapped for a new economical source of fuel. A recent study concluded that a sanitation system for 400,000 people in Kampala's urban slums can be run without subsidies by marketing wastewater products.
A mobile phone game and text messages to raise awareness of HIV's dangers (Kenya)
(video: http://bit.ly/11daydZ and http://bit.ly/17EGpGB)
A game-based approach to improving health will be tested in Kenya led by researcher Pam Muthuuri: a mobile phone role-playing game will raise awareness about HIV's dangers among girls and anticipate propositions from "sugar daddies." A complementary project, led by Dr. Njambi Njuguna of Kenyatta National Hospital, Kenya, will send with HIV-related mobile phone text messages to young females, many of whom do not perceive themselves to be at risk and thus don't test. In Kenya, 84% of HIV-infected people are unaware of their status with 33% not testing because they don't perceive a risk to themselves.
Help for those caring for children with Africa's "nodding disease" (Uganda)
(video: http://bit.ly/14GL3YW)
Thousands of East African children aged 5 to 15 suffer from a mysterious, deadly affliction called "nodding disease," characterized by stunted physical and mental growth, as well as severe nodding or epileptic-like seizures or frozen motion most often brought on when the child eats or feels cold.
Helping the children by addressing the heavy toll on caregivers is the focus of a project headed by Dr. Byamah Mutamba of the National Referral Mental Hospital, Uganda. His aim is to "improve care through reducing adverse methods (e.g. physical restraints like tying them up on trees), improve help seeking, medication adherence, reduced stigma and discrimination and school (re)attendance. Using a lay-health worker led intervention will allow for culture appropriateness, improve access and utilization of health services."
Tapping local businesses: Malaria drugs on wheels (Tanzania)
(video: http://bit.ly/12xBtUC)
Over 90% of malaria deaths are children, of which 80% reside in rural areas.
Led by Daudi Simba of Tanzania's Muhimbili University, researchers will work to take advantage of a recent surge in motorcycle popularity in East Africa, putting them to work delivering anti-malaria drugs.
The project predicts that motorcycle deliveries will create near universal access (>80%) to effective malaria treatment in the test area 300 km west of Dar es Salaam, where about one-third of the 500,000 residents survive on less than $1 a day.
###
Other projects include:
A diabetes glucose meter cell phone attachment (http://bit.ly/13LDu2f)
A tool kit to save newborn lives (http://bit.ly/10to2qL)
Engineering gut microbiome bacteria to defend against waterborne diseases like cholera and thyphoid (http://bit.ly/17RHlud)
For a complete listing of projects by city and country, and more information on all grants, including short videos on each project, please visit grandchallenges.ca
To date, Grand Challenges Canada has funded 270 projects around the world. There have already been 451 applications in 40 different countries for the next (5th) round of funding under the GCC Stars in Global Health programme.
Grand Challenges Canada is funded by the Government of Canada through the Development
Innovation Fund announced in the 2008 Federal Budget.
Please visit grandchallenges.ca and look for us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.
About Grand Challenges Canada
Grand Challenges Canada is dedicated to supporting bold ideas with big impact in global health. We are funded by the Government of Canada through the Development Innovation Fund announced in the 2008 Federal Budget. We fund innovators in low and middle income countries and Canada. Grand Challenges Canada works with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and other global health foundations and organizations to find sustainable long-term solutions through integrated innovation - bold ideas which integrate science, technology, social and business innovation. Grand Challenges Canada is hosted at the Sandra Rotman Centre.
grandchallenges.ca
About Canada's International Development Research Centre
The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) supports research in developing countries to promote growth and development. IDRC also encourages sharing this knowledge with policymakers, other researchers and communities around the world. The result is innovative, lasting local solutions that aim to bring choice and change to those who need it most.
As the Government of Canada's lead on the Development Innovation Fund, IDRC draws on decades of experience managing publicly funded research projects to administer the Development Innovation Fund. IDRC also ensures that developing country researchers and concerns are front and centre in this exciting new initiative.
idrc.ca
About Canadian Institutes of Health Research
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is the Government of Canada's health research investment agency. CIHR's mission is to create new scientific knowledge and to enable its translation into improved health, more effective health services and products, and a strengthened Canadian health care system. Composed of 13 Institutes, CIHR provides leadership and support to more than 14,100 health researchers and trainees across Canada.
CIHR will be responsible for the administration of international peer review, according to international standards of excellence. The results of CIHR-led peer reviews will guide the awarding of grants by Grand Challenges Canada from the Development Innovation Fund.
cihr-irsc.gc.ca
About Sandra Rotman Centre
The Sandra Rotman Centre is based at University Health Network and University of Toronto. We develop innovative global health solutions and help bring them to scale where they are most urgently needed. The Sandra Rotman Centre hosts Grand Challenges Canada.
srcglobal.org
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? Russian authorities secretly recorded a telephone conversation in 2011 in which one of the Boston bombing suspects vaguely discussed jihad with his mother, officials said Saturday, days after the U.S. government finally received details about the call.
In another conversation, the mother of now-dead bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was recorded talking to someone in southern Russia who is under FBI investigation in an unrelated case, officials said.
The conversations are significant because, had they been revealed earlier, they might have been enough evidence for the FBI to initiate a more thorough investigation of the Tsarnaev family.
As it was, Russian authorities told the FBI only that they had concerns that Tamerlan and his mother were religious extremists. With no additional information, the FBI conducted a limited inquiry and closed the case in June 2011.
Two years later, authorities say Tamerlan and his brother, Dzhohkar, detonated two homemade bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring more than 260. Tamerlan was killed in a police shootout and Dzhohkar is under arrest.
In the past week, Russian authorities turned over to the United States information it had on Tamerlan and his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva. The Tsarnaevs are ethnic Chechens who emigrated from southern Russia to the Boston area over the past 11 years.
Even had the FBI received the information from the Russian wiretaps earlier, it's not clear that the government could have prevented the attack.
In early 2011, the Russian FSB internal security service intercepted a conversation between Tamerlan and his mother vaguely discussing jihad, according to U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation with reporters.
The two discussed the possibility of Tamerlan going to Palestine, but he told his mother he didn't speak the language there, according to the officials, who reviewed the information Russia shared with the U.S.
In a second call, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva spoke with a man in the Caucasus region of Russia who was under FBI investigation. Jacqueline Maguire, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington Field Office, where that investigation was based, declined to comment.
There was no information in the conversation that suggested a plot inside the United States, officials said.
It was not immediately clear why Russian authorities didn't share more information at the time. It is not unusual for countries, including the U.S., to be cagey with foreign authorities about what intelligence is being collected.
Nobody was available to discuss the matter early Sunday at FSB offices in Moscow.
Jim Treacy, the FBI's legal attache in Moscow between 2007 and 2009, said the Russians long asked for U.S. assistance regarding Chechen activity in the United States that might be related to terrorism.
"On any given day, you can get some very good cooperation," Treacy said. "The next you might find yourself totally shut out."
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva has denied that she or her sons were involved in terrorism. She has said she believed her sons have been framed by U.S. authorities.
But Ruslan Tsarni, an uncle of the Tsarnaev brothers and Zubeidat's former brother-in-law, said Saturday he believes the mother had a "big-time influence" as her older son increasingly embraced his Muslim faith and decided to quit boxing and school.
After receiving the narrow tip from Russia in March 2011, the FBI opened a preliminary investigation into Tamerlan and his mother. But the scope was extremely limited under the FBI's internal procedures.
After a few months, they found no evidence Tamerlan or his mother were involved in terrorism.
The FBI asked Russia for more information. After hearing nothing, it closed the case in June 2011.
In the fall of 2011, the FSB contacted the CIA with the same information. Again the FBI asked Russia for more details and never heard back.
At that time, however, the CIA asked that Tamerlan's and his mother's name be entered into a massive U.S. terrorism database.
The CIA declined to comment Saturday.
Authorities have said they've seen no connection between the brothers and a foreign terrorist group. Dzhohkar told FBI interrogators that he and his brother were angry over wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the deaths of Muslim civilians there.
Family members have said Tamerlan was religiously apathetic until 2008 or 2009, when he met a conservative Muslim convert known only to the family as Misha. Misha, they said, steered Tamerlan toward a stricter version of Islam.
Two U.S. officials say investigators believe they have identified Misha. While it was not clear whether the FBI had spoken to him, the officials said they have not found a connection between Misha and the Boston attack or terrorism in general.
___
Associated Press writer Adam Goldman in Washington and Michael Kunzelman in Boston contributed to this report.
Here are the terms of trades completed on Saturday, April 27, the third and final day of the 2013 NFL Draft. All draft choices are 2013 selections unless otherwise noted:
The Jaguars traded a fourth-round pick (No. 98) to the Eagles. In exchange, the Eagles sent fourth- and seventh-round picks (Nos. 101, 210) to Jacksonville. With pick No. 98, the Eagles selected Southern California quarterback Matt Barkley. Three picks later, the Jaguars selected South Carolina wide receiver Ace Sanders at No. 101. With pick No. 210, the Jaguars took Appalachian State cornerback Demetrius McCray.
The Buccaneers acquired a fourth-round pick (No. 100) from Oakland. The Raiders, in turn, received fourth- and sixth-round selections (Nos. 112, 181) from Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers took Illinois defensive tackle Akeem Spence at No. 100. The Raiders selected Arkansas quarterback Tyler Wilson at No. 112 and UCF running back Latavius Murray at No. 181.
The Giants traded for a fourth-round pick (No. 110) belonging to Arizona. In exchange, New York sent fourth- and sixth-round selections (Nos. 116, 187) to the Cardinals. The Giants took Syracuse quarterback Ryan Nassib at No. 110. With No. 116, the Cardinals took James Madison offensive guard Earl Watford, and with No. 187, they selected Clemson running back Andre Ellington.
The Steelers acquired a fourth-round pick from Cleveland (No. 111). In return, the Browns will get the Steelers? third-round pick in 2014. The Steelers selected Syracuse safety Shamarko Thomas at No. 111.
The Packers traded for Denver?s fourth-round pick (No. 125), giving the Broncos fifth- and sixth-round picks (Nos. 146, 173) in return. The Packers selected UCLA running back Jonathan Franklin at No. 125. At No. 146, the Broncos selected Western Kentucky defensive end Quanterus Smith. At No. 173, the Broncos took Virginia Tech offensive tackle Vinston Painter.
The Seahawks acquired the Lions? fifth-round selection (No. 137). In return, the Lions received fifth- and sixth-round choices (Nos. 165, 199) from Seattle. At No. 137, the Seahawks took Alabama defensive tackle Jesse Williams. The Lions took Appalachian State punter Sam Martin at No. 165 and Notre Dame running back Theo Riddick at No. 199.
The Colts acquired the Browns? fifth-round pick (No. 139) in exchange for Indianapolis? 2014 fourth-round pick. At No. 139, the Colts selected Tennessee-Martin defensive tackle Montori Hughes.
The Falcons acquired the Bears? fifth-round selection (No. 153), sending fifth- and seventh-round picks (Nos. 163, 236) to Chicago. The Falcons selected Texas Christian defensive end / outside linebacker Stansly Maponga. The Bears took Louisiana Tech tackle Jordan Mills at No. 163 and Washington State wide receiver Marquess Wilson at No. 236.
The Rams traded back into Round Five, sending sixth- and seventh-round picks (Nos. 184, 198) to the Texans for Houston?s fifth-round pick (No. 160). The Rams took Vanderbilt running back Zac Stacy at No. 160. The Texans exercised pick No. 198 on Bowling Green defensive tackle Chris Jones. The Texans dealt selection No. 184 to Oakland (see next entry).
The Texans acquired a sixth-round pick from Oakland (No. 176). In return, Houston sent sixth- and seventh-round selections to Oakland (Nos. 184, 233). The Texans selected San Jose State offensive tackle David Quessenberry at No. 176. The Raiders used selection No. 184 on Tennessee tight end Mychal Rivera and selection No. 233 on Missouri Western State defensive end David Bass.
The Buccaneers traded running back LeGarrette Blount to the Patriots for running back / kick returner Jeff Demps and a seventh-round pick (No. 229). The Buccaneers traded the No. 229 pick to Minnesota (see next entry).
The Buccaneers acquired a sixth-round pick from Minnesota (No. 189). In return, the Vikings received sixth- and seventh-round picks (Nos. 196, 229). The Buccaneers took Miami (Fla.) running back Mike James at No. 189. The Vikings selected UCLA offensive guard Jeff Baca at No. 196 and Florida State defensive tackle Everett Dawkins with pick No. 229.
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The very nature of ADHD makes it difficult for adults with the disorder to use credit cards responsibly. ?Impulsivity, for one thing, means an adult with ADHD will see something they want and without thinking it through, will pull out their credit card and make a purchase,? according to Terry Matlen, ACSW, a psychotherapist and author of Survival Tips for Women with AD/HD.
It also doesn?t help that credit cards are so easy to use. ?Credit cards are rather intangible. They?re plastic, easy to store and don?t look like money. It?s much easier handing a card to a clerk than reaching for cash that generally has more meaning and is more concrete.?
Psychotherapist Stephanie Sarkis, Ph.D, agreed. ?Credit cards can give the illusion that one is not really spending ?real? money.?
Plus, you get instant gratification, and the negative consequences are delayed, since your bills don?t arrive for weeks, Matlen added.
But while using credit cards is more challenging when you have ADHD, you can learn to use them responsibly. Below, Matlen and Sarkis shared their practical and realistic suggestions.
1. Use cash.
?It?s much easier to hand over a little plastic card than a wad of bills that the person worked very hard to earn,? Matlen said. Cash is tangible. ?[U]sing cash is a giant cue that there is only so much money available once some or much of it is spent.?
2. Use one credit card.
If you can?t use cash all the time, have one card for all your purchases, Matlen said. And make sure it has the lowest finance fees you can find, she said.
3. Get a credit card with full payment requirements.
Some people have a remaining balance on their credit cards each month, which leads to finance charges, said Sarkis, author of several books on adult ADHD, including 10 Simple Solutions to Adult ADD.
She compared having an unpaid balance to ?taking out a high-interest loan. An item that seemed like a deal at 50 percent off may actually cost you 200 percent for the original cost if you don?t pay off your balance.? That?s why she suggested having a card like an American Express that requires paying off the full balance every month.
4. Set up automatic withdrawals.
It?s common for adults with ADHD to rack up late fees, because they forget to pay their bills. This is why having money automatically taken out of your account every month is helpful. But, as Sarkis said, you have to make sure there?s enough money in your account.
5. Set up online payments.
Another option is to pay your bill online, Matlen said. Set up reminders to help you pay on time, she said. For instance, you can create reminders in an online calendar and with alarms on your phone.
6. Create a system for bills.
If online payments aren?t possible, Matlen also suggested keeping a box or manila folder for your bills: When each bill arrives, open it, and look at the due date. Write that date on the envelope, and put the bill in your box or folder. Keep the bills in the order in which they?re due. Then, pick two days each month to pay your bills. Note those days in your calendar.
7. Have a pre-paid card.
Both experts suggested having a pre-paid card that fits your budget. ?This helps to prevent over-spending on credit cards,? Matlen said.
8. Take drastic measures.
Some readers might need to take more drastic measures. For instance, for clients whose over-spending is particularly bad, Matlen suggests ?they take their credit cards and put them in the freezer so that they aren?t so easily accessible.?
9. Give yourself a day to reconsider purchases. ?
According to Matlen, when it seems like you?re making an impulsive buy, stop and take a picture of the item instead. (Most cell phones have cameras.) Then give yourself one day to decide if you really want it.
10. Shop with a person who can keep you accountable.
?Shop with someone who can help you curb your impulsive buying,? Matlen said.
It?s common for adults with ADHD to overspend and forget to pay their bills. But while these problems are prevalent, they?re also surmountable. The key is to find a system that works for you and stick with it.
Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S. is an Associate Editor at Psych Central and blogs regularly about eating and self-image issues on her own blog, Weightless.
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????Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 26 Apr 2013 ????Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
APA Reference Tartakovsky, M. (2013). 10 Tips for Using Credit Cards Responsibly When You Have ADHD. Psych Central. Retrieved on April 26, 2013, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/04/26/10-tips-for-using-credit-cards-responsibly-when-you-have-adhd/
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Public release date: 29-Apr-2013
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The very nature of ADHD makes it difficult for adults with the disorder to use credit cards responsibly. ?Impulsivity, for one thing, means an adult with ADHD will see something they want and without thinking it through, will pull out their credit card and make a purchase,? according to Terry Matlen, ACSW, a psychotherapist and author of Survival Tips for Women with AD/HD.
Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S. is an Associate Editor at Psych Central and blogs regularly about eating and self-image issues on her own blog, Weightless.