Gates Foundation
issues AIDS grants

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation this week announced the winners of its Grand Challenges in Global Health grants, and two HIV prevention projects received multimillion awards, USA Today reports. Researchers at St. George's University in London received $19.6 million for their project to develop a microbicide that can prevent HIV infections, which will be packaged as either a gel or a low-cost silicone ring that can be inserted into the vagina. A team at the California Institute of Technology received $13.9 million for their project aiming to design an antibody that will kill HIV and then prime the body to produce large numbers of the antibody to prevent HIV infection. All told, the Gates Foundation issued more than $450 million in health research grants.