Australian Scientists Win A$28 Mln Vaccine Grant::Courtesy of Gates

MELBOURNE, July 7 (Bernama) -- Australian scientists are part of an international team awarded a A$28 million grant (about RM78 million) to develop a malaria vaccine, courtesy of multi-billionaire Bill Gates.

The team, including scientists from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) in Melbourne, the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute in the US and the University of Heidelberg in Germany, was among 40 applicants awarded grants by the Microsoft chief's Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

About 650 applicants sought the lucrative grants.

A group headed in Australia by WEHI infection and immunity division chief Professor Alan Cowman was awarded A$17.6 million to use genetically manipulated malaria parasites to develop a vaccine for the disease.

Professor Cowman said research would be a major step forward in developing a vaccine for the disease, which kills three million people, mostly children, every year in places such as Africa, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor.

Another consortium, involving WEHI researcher Dr Louis Schofield, was awarded A$10.8 million (about RM30.2 million) to study how people in developing countries develop immunities to parasitic infections, and how such immunity can be developed against malaria.

-- BERNAMA