Chinese health innovators earn applause

Two of China's top health innovators held the spotlight at the recent Grand Challenges Initiative anniversary meeting, a grant competition set up by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, earlier this month.

The grant organization, aiming to solve key health problems for the poor through innovation and technology, honored You Qimin during the 10th Grand Challenges Anniversary on Wednesday.

"I feel that the whole world is embracing me," You said on the last day of the meeting, held from Oct.6 to Oct.8 in Seattle. He was among more than 1,000 participators from 47 countries attending the anniversary.

Earlier this year, You, the CEO of Hangzhou-based Ustar Biotechnologies, was funded 11.27 million U.S. dollars from the Gates Foundation.

The company had received a grant from the Grand Challenges Canada in October 2011 to develop and market an innovative, portable, low-cost and rapid nucleic acid test for HIV and TB(tuberculosis). It is the first Chinese company to receive such funding.

Zuo Lian, another grant winner, is the chief scientific officer of Regenex Pharmaceuticals in Guangzhou. Her research, claiming to have developed the thinnest condom, matches the long-held mission of the Gates Foundation to curb HIV.

The team, led by Zuo, earned a grant of 100,000 dollars from the Grand Challenges Explorations 2014, is also the only Chinese team to be sponsored in the 12th round of the competition. [ "We have designed the thickness of a condom to less than 30 microns. It can fit your skin better and is more sensitive, so that having sex will be much more pleasurable," Zuo Lian told Xinhua.

MORE THAN A GRANT

The Grand Challenges in Global Health grant program began in 2003 awarding five-year grants totaling 450 million U.S dollars to scientists from 33 countries.

"Starting this program was one of the first really big things our foundation did to advance innovation on behalf of the poor - and it's great to be joined by partners from all over the world who have been involved in this with us," Bill Gates said during the keynote speech at the anniversary.

"We've learned how to maximize the chances of finding projects that might succeed."