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Dr Boitumelo Semete who, together with collaborators, has received a US$100 000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for her TB drug delivery project
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The CSIR has received a US$100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will support an innovative global health research project conducted by Dr Boitumelo Semete and collaborators, titled 'A novel way of targeting TB using aptamers and nanotechnology'.
Semete's project is one of 81 grants announced by the Gates Foundation in the second funding round of Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative to help scientists around the world explore bold and largely unproven ways to improve health in developing countries. It is a five-year, $100 million initiative to promote innovation in global health. The grants were provided to scientists in 17 countries on six continents, of which only two were granted in South Africa.
Semete, from the CSIR polymers and bioceramics group, worked in collaboration with CSIR colleague Dr Makobetsa Khati from the aptamer technology group, Professor Cameron Alexander (Drug Delivery & Tissue Engineering, School of Pharmacy, Nottingham University) and Dr Arwyn Jones (Welsh School of Pharmacy, Cardiff University).
Semete explains the research: "We aim to address the current burden of tuberculosis (TB) treatment by applying novel technologies to deliver anti-TB drugs specifically to TB-infected cells. We will put the current anti-TB drugs in very small particles that are in the nano size range, i.e. a 10th of the strand of human hair. To these particles, we will then put molecules derived from DNA that will enable the particles to attach specifically to TB infected cells. Once in the body, these particles will attach specifically to infected cells and get taken up by these cells, where they will then release the anti-TB drugs and so kill off the TB bacteria."
With this novel drug delivery system, the team aims to improve the bioavailability of the current anti-TB drugs, with the possibility of shortening the treatment period for TB as well as reduce the side effects of the drugs.
"To receive funding, we needed to show in a two-page application how the idea falls outside current scientific paradigms and might lead to significant advances in global health," says Semete. "The funding will assist greatly with our future research and bring us closer to our dream of making an impact in the lives of TB patients. In addition, it will enable our group to showcase the research conducted by South African researchers, in collaboration with our UK partners, to address challenges facing South Africa."
The Grand Challenges Explorations grant initiative is highly competitive, having received more than 3 000 proposals in this round. "The winners of these grants are doing truly exciting and innovative work," said Dr Tachi Yamada, president of the Gates Foundation's Global Health Programme, "I'm optimistic that some of these exploratory projects will lead to life-saving breakthroughs for people in the world's poorest countries."
In 2005, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded a grant to the
Africa Biofortified Sorghum consortium of which the CSIR is a research
partner. This project seeks to improve the micronutrient and vitamin A
content as well as protein digestibility of sorghum, an African staple
crop. Technology development is nearly complete. Researchers are now
conducting product development studies.
Enquiries: CSIR Communication
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