City-based scientist gets US grant for malaria research

With no existing vaccine,dengue is a threat to 2.5 billion people and with 50 million cases of dengue fever every year,it is a challenging task to beat this virus.

With no existing vaccine,dengue is a threat to 2.5 billion people and with 50 million cases of dengue fever every year,it is a challenging task to beat this virus. So,it is a moment of pride for Dr Yogesh Shouche,Pune-based scientist at the National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS),who has been selected for a generous grant from the National Institutes of Health,USA for a research project on malaria. Shouche is the sole researcher from the country to secure the grant which has been awarded to four universities across the world.

When contacted,Shouche told The Indian Express that the aim was to look at the role of the microbe in the gut of the mosquito and find out which are the good ones and bad ones that affect the transmission of the dengue virus.

The Fogarty International Center,part of the National Institutes of Health,announced it will award approximately $537,000 over three years to fund international research collaboration at five universities. Fogarty International Research Collaboration Award (FIRCA) grants are given jointly to an NIH-supported investigator and an overseas collaborator in a low-and middle-income country,with the financial support going to the foreign collaborator. The FIRCA programme is intended to benefit the research interests of both collaborators while increasing research capacity at the foreign site. Shouche will collaborate with the University of Notre Dame,South Bend,Indiana.

Other awardees include University of California,San Diego and Universidad Nacional de Quilmes,Buenos Aires,Argentina,University of Chile,Santiago,Chile and University of North Carolina,Chapel Hill University of Michigan,Ann Arbor and Instituto Leloir,Buenos Aires,Argentina and Wake Forest University,Winston-Salem,N C and Universidad Mayor de San Andrés,La Paz,Bolivia

Each institution will receive between $33,000 and $41,000 annually over three years. The new grants aim to increase access to emerging research techniques and capabilities,and unique populations and environments. Four of the new grants are going to US institutions,while the fifth will go directly to a foreign institution,the University of Chile. The five new grants will support research on a wide range of public health issues including obesity,chronic mountain sickness,dengue fever and central nervous system injuries.

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