We may be witnessing the beginning of a new trend in scientific and medical research, conducted expressly to improve lives while moving considerations of profit and intellectual property to a place even farther beyond the proverbial back burner.
Only a couple weeks ago, we wrote about British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline’s announcement to make a vast cache of research and data it had conducted in the fight against malaria into the public domain with the hope that care providers and researchers around the world could put the findings to good use with no strings attached.
Now, Scientific American reports that Australian chemist and entrepreneur Matthew Todd is initiating a totally open-source research project geared to the fight against the tropical disease schistosomiasis. The disease is spread by parasitic freshwater flatworms and impacts populations primarily in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The available supply of the most effective medicine is about one-tenth of the global demand, and Todd hopes that his project will witness the coming together of talented and compassionate people in a collaborative manner to address the ongoing health challenge.
On sabbatical from Stanford University and bolstered by funding from the Australian government and the World Health Organization, Todd’s project establishes an open-source chemical research network focused on the development of a more effective and easily replicable synthesized version of the medication currently in use, but that is both expensive and in short supply.
Photo via Wikimedia Commons
