Gates Fdn. Gives Israeli University $1.3M To Help Eradicate Polio

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) a grant of $1.3 million to help eradicate the last surviving strain of the virus that causes polio. 

International efforts have led to two of the three strains of the virus that cause the highly infectious disease being globally eradicated, and a vaccine against polio was first developed by Jonas Salk in the 1950s. The World Health Organization, however, says the third form of the virus is still present in a small number of countries. 

The BGU research led by Prof. Tomer Hertz focuses on a new way of measuring immune system responses to the poliovirus. 

Hertz and his team will use the funding to optimize the polio antigen microarray (PAM), which studies the interaction between an antibody and its target antigen, the latter of which can trigger a response from the immune system.  

PAM, which requires a minimal amount of serum to conduct its test, will help to provide a quick analysis of serological surveys in the countries where polio has yet to be eradicated.

“This is a very exciting opportunity to test our PAM assay on a large set of samples from a serosurvey conducted in the Democratic Republic of Congo and we are very excited to get this project underway, and hope that this will lead to the establishment of a novel and safe to use assay for measuring protection from polio infection,” said Hertz.