Society

Chinese researcher seeks to kill HIV

By Shan Juan (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-14 07:22

Granted $100,000 for ground-breaking study

BEIJING - The idea sounds not so complicated: make a virus in a lab that could kill HIV, the cause of the deadly AIDS, to finally cure the currently incurable disease that is a major killer worldwide.

That, surprisingly, helped Liu Chang, a 28-year-old instructor at the medical school of the Tianjin-based Nankai University, distinguish himself from more than 2,000 applicants worldwide to land a $100,000 research grant in the fourth round of the Grand Challenges Explorations.

The program is a five-year, $100 million initiative to promote innovation in global health. Part of the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to achieve major breakthroughs in global health.

"It's a big pleasant surprise for me to get the grant supporting my dream research, which might one day help save AIDS victims," Liu told China Daily on Wednesday.

"In China, the chance for a young researcher like me, with no background of overseas study, to get a grant of this sum is quite slim," he said, adding that the grant money for his project "HIVi: A Novel Weapon to Kill HIV," has been distributed and the research has begun.

If he passes an expert evaluation one year later, he will get another $1 million provided by the program to support further research work.

Among the 78 grant award recipients of $100,000 in the fourth round of the Grand Challenges Explorations announced by the foundation on May 11, two are from China, one of whom is Liu.

The other is Professor Dang Hongyue, of the China University of Petroleum in Qingdao.

Dang will research whether early-stage pneumonia infections produce specific biomarkers that can be detected in a breath analysis.

If so, Dang will produce and test a prototype breath sensor device that can be used in low-resource settings to capture and analyze these signature chemical compounds as a method to diagnose pneumonia.

"(The two winners) are great examples of applying the entrepreneur spirit in scientific investigation by developing life-saving products," said Ray Yip, who heads the China efforts for the foundation.

"The purpose of this program is to encourage this spirit, instead of doing research just for publications," he said.

To date, the grants have been awarded to 340 researchers from 31 countries, with only four from the Chinese mainland.

Some have blamed relatively poor innovation and creativity of Chinese scientific researchers for that.

Liu, however, thought otherwise.

"I am totally self-trained in China and have never been abroad, but I don't think young science workers like me lack creativity in research," he said.

However, he acknowledged that the model of the program, which is to select grant winners primarily based on proposals instead of other factors like background, will substantially help to encourage the creativity of Chinese researchers, particularly the young.

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, said in May that some of the world's research talent have begun to focus on issues that cause the most suffering like health and development in poor countries.

"In the past few years, China has significantly increased its investment and launched a number of projects in health, such as the control and treatment of AIDS and hepatitis," he said.