(JNS.org) The Haifa-based Technion-Israel Institute of Technology has been awarded a grant for a tuberculosis-treatment breakthrough as part of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Exploration program that encourages scientists to fight the world’s greatest health challenges through innovation in global health research. The Technion grant, whose amount was not announced, will go to Professor Hossam Haick of the Chemical Engineering Department and Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute, who is developing cutting-edge biomedical technology, including a self-administered electronic patch for the detection of tuberculosis via skin. About 95 percent of those who suffer tuberculosis live in developing countries where inhabitants subsist on incomes of $1 per day. The goal of Haick’s project is to develop a self-administered diagnostic method based on the adhesive patch.