We just received some exciting news about a UW Change and PATH collaboration which has received Gates Foundation funding. According to PATH.org, "PATH will lead a new research project to develop a low-cost, cell phone–based system for human milk banks to monitor the safety of donated breast milk, supported by a $100,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges Explorations initiative. The system combines the power of cell phone technology with the simplicity of a low-tech flash-heating pasteurization process to ensure that breast milk donated to feed vulnerable infants is free of bacteria and viruses, including HIV, while retaining its nutritional value. The 12-month grant was made to a multidisciplinary team that includes PATH and two partner organizations—the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington and the Human Milk Banking Association of South Africa. The team will develop and field-test a networked temperature sensing system using FoneAstra (http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/rohitc/foneastra.htm), a cell phone technology, to accurately monitor and validate temperatures during flash-heating. It will provide real-time, audiovisual feedback to users, allow automated supervisor monitoring, and archive results for review and audit. Flash-heating is a simple, effective way to pasteurize breast milk that is more affordable for human milk banks in low-resource settings than standard commercial-grade pasteurization. The total cost for the monitoring system will be less than US$100, compared to commercial-grade pasteurizers, which cost up to $12,000". Read more at http://www.path.org/news/an111107-infant-nutrition.php and congratulations to Rohit Chaudhri and the entire FoneAstra team!