IDRI gets $30 million grant from Gates Foundation

The Infectious Disease Research Institute, a Seattle USA-based non-profit scientific research institute, says that it has received a five-year grant of over $29.9 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This will be used to provide adjuvants (essential components for many vaccines) for priority malaria vaccine candidates. Advances arising from this project are likely also to facilitate development of vaccines against other neglected diseases. With this grant, the IDRI will focus on adjuvants for malaria vaccines. Because malaria parasites have a complex life cycle, creating an effective vaccine is a major scientific challenge. Worldwide, every year 350 million to 500 million people are infected with malaria and more than one million die from this preventable disease.