Bill Gates continues with his philanthropic work as he donated $50 million to Stanford as a grant.
Gates may have relaxed a bit in Microsoft, but he is keeping himself busy for a much greater cause: saving as many lives as he can especially those in Africa. As part of his commitment in eradicating infectious and deadly diseases, he has donated $50 million as a health grant to Stanford University to allow the team to build a new immunology center and discover vaccines.
Stanford shared the good news in its official website on Thursday, January 29. The grant will be good for 10 years and will allow the scientists to develop and find new vaccines such as for malaria and HIV, which have killed millions of people particularly in Africa. The university was a perfect choice since it already has capable technologies and tools, some of which they themselves developed.
The main objective of the grant and the long-term project is to discover new-generation vaccines by harnessing the power of immune response. Usually, vaccines are tested on lab mice or primates before they are applied on humans. This can damage the momentum and crash hopes since many clinical trials reveal that vaccines can still fail even if they have promising results on animals. Nevertheless, it is not easy to immediately get into human trial clueless since it is an expensive undertaking.
By having a deeper understanding of how the immune system works, the scientists may be able to develop vaccines that have a much higher success rate.
Gates had earlier predicted during the recent World Economic Forum that a vaccine against HIV may be developed by 2030. This can then result to a dramatic decrease of its prevalence as it will prevent future infection and existing patients may no longer have to be dependent on long-term medication or treatment.
