Scanning electron microscope image of edible micro-balloons for nutrition enhancement. Image: suppliedThe University of Melbourne was announced as a winner of a global Grand Challenges Explorations grant - an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Professor Muthupandian Ashokkumar along with Dr Francesca Cavalieri and Dr Srinivas Mettu will pursue an innovative global health and development research project, titled ’Edible Micro-Balloons for Nutrition Enhancement’, aimed at relieving malnutrition among mothers and infants in developing countries.
Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE) supports innovative thinkers worldwide to explore ideas that can break the mold in how we solve persistent global health and development challenges.
Professor Ashokkumar’s project is one of 34 GCE Round 21 grants announced by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
To receive funding, Professor Ashokkumar’s team and other GCE winners demonstrated in a two-page online application a bold idea in one of three critical global heath and development topic areas. The foundation will be accepting applications for the next GCE round in February, 2019.
The grant will allow the team to produce edible microballoons made from protein that contain essential nutrients for adding to common foods to combat malnutrition in mothers and infants.
They have developed a method that uses ultrasound waves to encapsulate oiland water-soluble vitamins and minerals within edible shells made from a range of proteins including milk and pea proteins.
Encapsulating the nutrients, rather than adding them directly to food, helps keep them stable and promotes their absorption in the body. It can also mask unpleasant tastes, and control the timing and location of nutrient release, which can increase their performance.
Professor Ashokkumar said: "We are very grateful to the Gates Foundation for awarding us this grant funding, allowing us to take our work to the next stage."
Dr Cavalieri, who has done seminal work with Professor Ashokkumar on the development of air/oil filled microballoons over the last 11 years said: "Edible microballoons have a great promise in enhancing the nutritional levels of various foods."
Dr Mettu, a Chemical Engineer who is part of "
The key research that led to this grant was published in Soft Matter , a journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
About Grand Challenges Explorations
Grand Challenges Explorations is a US$100 million initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Launched in 2008, over 1400 projects in more than 65 countries have received GCE grants. The grant program is open to anyone from any discipline and from any organisation. The initiative uses an agile, accelerated grant-making process with short two-page online applications and no preliminary data required. Initial grants of US$100,000 are awarded two times per year. Successful projects have the opportunity to receive a follow-on grant of up to US$1 million.
Related content in University Activities + Science and the Environments + Science and the Environments
Former Victorian Premier John Brumby has formally opened the new ’Nancy Millis’ building, an expansion of the Univeristy of Melbourne Bio21 Institute of Molecular Science and Biotechnology , incorporating CSL’s Global Hub for Research and Translational Medicine.
A new report has found that the increase in megaesophagus cases in Australia in 2017 and 2018 can be linked to Advance Dermocare(TM) pet food.
The University of Melbourne has welcomed funding as part of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Partnership Grants, announced today by The Hon Greg Hunt, Minister for Health.
Small local patches of bushland could be playing a much bigger role in conserving biodiversity than previously thought, according to new research.
Researchers have discovered a ’blind spot’ in atomic force microscopy - a powerful tool capable of measuring the force between two atoms, imaging the structure of individual cells and the motion of biomolecules.
