Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy Receives Grand Challenges Explorations Funding

By Cynthia McMullen

Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy will receive funding through Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative created by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that enables researchers worldwide to test unorthodox ideas that address persistent health and development challenges.  

Phillip M. Gerk, Ph.D., assistant professor of pharmaceutics in the School of Pharmacy, will pursue a health research project titled “Eradicating HIV Infection: Eliminate HIV Viral Sanctuaries,” developing a method using the body's own transporter proteins to target antiretroviral drugs to sites in the body where the HIV virus hides. “We will design drugs that utilize transporters in models of the brain and the gut,” he said, “thereby eliminating viral hiding spots.”

Grand Challenges Explorations funds scientists and researchers to explore ideas that can break the mold in how persistent global health and development challenges are solved. Gerk’s project is one of 110 grants announced. 

“We believe in the power of innovation—that a single bold idea can pioneer solutions to our greatest health and development challenges,” said Chris Wilson, director of Global Health Discovery for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “Grand Challenges Explorations seeks to identify and fund these new ideas wherever they come from, allowing scientists, innovators and entrepreneurs to pursue the kinds of creative ideas and novel approaches that could help to accelerate the end of polio, cure HIV infection or improve sanitation.” 

Projects that receive funding show promise in tackling priority global health issues where solutions do not yet exist.  This includes finding effective methods to eliminate or control infectious diseases such as polio and HIV, as well as discovering new sanitation technologies.

To learn more about Grand Challenges Explorations, visit www.grandchallenges.org.