Malaria Detection Dogs

Malaria Detection Dogs

Durham University receives Grand Challenges Explorations Grant for ground-breaking research in global health and development.

Milton Keynes – Durham University announced today that it is a Grand Challenges Explorations winner, an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  Professor Steve Lindsay, the lead investigator will pursue an innovative global health and development research project, titled “Using medical-detection dogs to identify people with malaria parasites.” Durham University will partner with Medical Detection Dogs, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia on this project.

Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE) funds individuals worldwide to explore ideas that can break the mould in how we solve persistent global health and development challenges.  Professor Steve Lindsay’s project is one of more than 40 Grand Challenges Explorations grants announced today by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

To receive funding, Professor Steve Lindsay and other Grand Challenges Explorations winners demonstrated in a two-page online application a bold idea in one of five critical global heath and development topic areas.

The foundation will be accepting applications for the next GCE round in September 2016.

Durham University will be collaborating with Medical Detection Dogs, the UK charity that train dogs to detect the odour of human disease, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia.

Their aim will be to find a way of detecting malaria that is non-invasive and can be used to test a large number of samples at a time. Current tests require finger-prick blood collection and laboratory screening. In contrast, the dogs are portable and rapid.

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Courtesy of BBC South Today

Courtesy of CCTV