The Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative, an organization launched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, last year issued a challenge to “Discover Biomarkers of Health and Disease“, specifically in two areas: Biomarkers of Tuberculosis and Biomarkers of Gut Function. The goal of this challenge was to discover validated biomarkers that could improve the diagnosis and treatment of individuals suffering from disease in impoverished and developing countries. Recently, the Mayo Clinic was awarded funding for the gut biomarkers project, which it hopes to use to develop a simple test that identifies infants suffering from environmental enteropathy. This disease, which affects nearly 146 million infants in developing countries, results in the infants being malnourished, stunting their growth and development. Ideally, these biomarkers will offer a cost-effective way of diagnosing these infants and allow physicians to treat the disease sooner.
