Utpal Baruah
Sun, 10 May 2009 20:29:34 -0700
We should feel proud on him ........ Dr. Bikul Das a NRI assamese doctor receive prestigious Bill Gates foundation ..for Unconventional Global Health Research Projects Detail news you can go link given below I send three email which I receive from him bikul is one of good friend who based in Canada .
Times online in London http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article6222056.ece Bill Gates Foundation Invests in 81 Unconventional Global Health Research Projects http://www.gatesfoundation.org/press-releases/Pages/grand-challenges-explorations-grant-receipients-spring-2009.aspx and a report by indian news paper Times of India Times of India by prabin kalita dated 7-5-09 GUWAHATI: An Assamese doctor, Bikul Das, has got the prestigious Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant to explore "bold and largely unproven ways" to improve health in developing countries. Das (39), working with StanfordUniversity Medical School in California, will explore the potential role of stem cells in treating latent tuberculosis infection. His name for the $100,000-grant figured among 81 researchers from 17 countries in the list that was announced on Monday in Seattle. The endowment was awarded through the foundation's Grand Challenges Explorations initiative, which aims to develop a pipeline of creative ideas that could change the face of global heath. "One of the new grants was awarded to Dr Bikul Das of Stanford University Medical School, who has studied cancer stem cell biology for the last decade but maintains an interest in infectious diseases due to his clinical training in India and Bhutan. The new grant will enable him to explore the potential role of stem cells in latent TB infection," says an official announcement by the foundation. A resident of Sualkuchi near Guwahati and a graduate of Gauhati Medical College and Hospital, Das in an e-mail to TOI wrote, "I am kind of lucky to get this grant. Stanford is putting it as a big news since I'm the only one from the school to receive the grant. Luck really works, sometimes! I am excited at getting the opportunity to join the global war against infectious diseases. "I am suddenly being interviewed journalists across the world, this is just unbelievable." The president of Gates Foundation's Global Health Program, Tachi Yamada, said, "Grand Challenges Explorations is our way to help inspire the bold ideas that could one day help transform global health." The 81 researchers will explore a wide range of new ideas, including giving mosquitoes a "head cold" to prevent them from detecting and biting human beings, developing a tomato to produce anti-viral drugs, using laser to enhance the effect of vaccines, the foundation states.