Mosquito Surveillance Gets Major Funding
A Woods-affiliated researcher is among Stanford scientists receiving awards totaling $11.5 million to pursue high-risk, high-reward research.
Woods-affiliated Assistant Professor of Bioengineering Manu Prakash is one of seven Stanford scientists who received a total of $11.5 million in National Institutes of Health funding recently. Prakash will use the grant money to do further work on a low-cost, scalable technology for assessing mosquito-borne disease. The research was also funded by a 2013 Woods Environmental Venture Projects (EVP) seed grant.
Prakash studies disease vectors such as mosquitoes that transmit deadly diseases like malaria and dengue. These vector-borne diseases take a huge toll on human health. Yet no high-throughput, high-resolution tools exist for mosquito surveillance and the pathogens they harbor.
Prakash hopes to develop a device that will screen insect vectors in their natural habitat with minimal human intervention. The technology could lead to early warning systems for epidemics, monitoring of the evolution of insecticide resistance and a better understanding of how vector-borne diseases are transmitted.
Prakash and the other Stanford scientists are among the 78 recipients of the 2015 Pioneer, New Innovator, Transformative Research and Early Independence awards from the NIH. The awards are designed to encourage scientists to pursue creative research projects with the potential of leading to big improvements in health care.
Read more about Prakash's EVP.
Read more about the NIH grants.
Stanford School of Medicine