Global hunt for off-beat research

Imagine yourself driving a 50-year-old car. That's how a visiting senior official of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation described current tools to diagnose and treat TB patients.

"The current TB diagnostic test is 125-year-old. Vaccine was developed 80 years ago, and the TB drugs are in use for about 50 years," said Tachi Yamada, president of Global Health Program at the Gates Foundation in Beijing yesterday, adding that it was time new drugs were developed.

The foundation yesterday announced a new round of Grand Challenges Explorations - a five-year, $100-million initiative to encourage bold and unconventional research on new global health solutions.