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$16 Million to Fight Childhood Mortality, River Blindness in Africa

Published

13 years ago

January 25, 2013

Thomas Lietman, MD, treats a young boy in Matameye, Niger, in 2012. Lietman is leading a team that’s received $12 million for a multi-year trial to study the effectiveness of the antibiotic azithromycin in reducing childhood mortality in Niger, Tanzania and Malawi.

Two UCSF teams have received a total of $16 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to study new ways to significantly reduce childhood mortality and disease in developing nations.
An international team led by Thomas M. Lietman, MD, associate director of the UCSF Francis I. Proctor Foundation for Research in Ophthalmology, received $12 million for a multi-year trial to study the effectiveness of mass oral administration of the antibiotic azithromycin in reducing childhood mortality in Niger, Tanzania and Malawi – three nations with severe childhood mortality rates.
A second team, led by James H. McKerrow, MD, PhD, professor of pathology and pharmaceutical chemistry, received $4.3 million to identify and develop a drug that kills the parasitic roundworms known as filiariae that cause river blindness, the leading cause of blindness in parts of West Africa.
If successfully developed, the same drug will have a high probability of killing the closely related parasite that causes lymphatic filariasis, or elephantiasis, a crippling and disfiguring disease that affects millions of people in Africa, Asia, the Indian subcontinent and South America.
Lietman’s project is based on an earlier study in which communities in Ethiopia that received mass doses of azithromycin to treat trachoma – a strain of chlamydia that causes blindness – experienced an overall reduction in childhood mortality from all causes.
Community-wide antibiotic administration is common in African nations where trachoma is usually found, he said.
Preschool children in Lietman’s study will be randomized to receive either a cherry-flavored oral suspension of azithromycin or a placebo every six months for two years. If there is a significant reduction in mortality in the communities that receive the antibiotic, the study will be extended for another two years and all communities will receive antibiotics.
The goal of McKerrow’s study is to find a drug that kills the adult form of the parasitic filarial worm, which is spread by a fly that breeds near fast-flowing rivers.
When the fly bites, it deposits larvae under the skin that grow into worms several inches long. The parasite associated with river blindness attacks the eye, while its relative that is responsible for lymphatic filariasis blocks the lymphatic channels in the groin, resulting in extreme swelling of the lower extremities.
McKerrow’s research group will employ new software developed by UCSF research specialist Chris Marcellino that significantly speeds the screening of potential compounds. Conventional drug screening technology uses plates with many hollows, or wells, each of which contains a candidate compound that is screened individually for promising activity.
The new software allows an entire plate to be scanned for results in seconds. Scanning and evaluating a whole plate rather than individual wells is necessary, McKerrow explained, because of the large size of the worms, which restrict each plate to dozens rather than hundreds of wells.
“With conventional, well-by-well scanning, it would take a long time to screen many compounds,” said McKerrow. “But if you can scan a whole plate and then move on to the next plate in a few seconds, you can filter through thousands of compounds much more efficiently.”
The compounds will come from two sources. The first is what McKerrow calls traditional drug discovery, which starts from chemicals that aren’t yet drugs. That research will take advantage of unique chemistry developed by Bay Area biotech company Anacor Pharmaceuticals.
The second source is “repurposed drugs” that have already been approved by the FDA for human use. Working in collaboration with the UCSF Small Molecule Discovery Center, McKerrow’s group expects to create a library of approximately 1,700 FDA-approved drugs that can be used in this and similar screens.
– By Kristen Bole, UCSF

Oakland Post

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Oakland Housing and Community Development Department Awards $80.5 Million to Affordable Housing Developments

Published

6 months ago

June 17, 2025

Oakland Post

Special to The Post

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department (Oakland HCD) announced its awardees for the 2024-2025 New Construction of Multifamily Affordable Housing Notice of Funding Availability (New Construction NOFA) today Five permanently affordable housing developments received awards out of 24 applications received by the Department, with award amounts ranging from $7 million to $28 million.

In a statement released on Jan. 16, Oakland’s HCD stated, “Five New Construction Multifamily Affordable Housing Development projects awarded a total of $80.5 million to develop 583 affordable rental homes throughout Oakland. Awardees will leverage the City’s investments to apply for funding from the state and private entities.”

In December, the office of Rebecca Kaplan, interim District 2 City Councilmember, worked with HCD to allocate an additional $10 Million from Measure U to the funding pool. The legislation also readopted various capital improvement projects including street paving and upgrades to public facilities.

The following Oakland affordable housing developments have been awarded in the current round:

Mandela Station Affordable

238 Affordable Units including 60 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $15 million + previously awarded $18 million
Developer: Mandela Station LP (Pacific West Communities, Inc. and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 1451 7th St.

Liberation Park Residences

118 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $28 million
Developer: Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zone
City Council District: 6
Address: 7101 Foothill Blvd.

34th & San Pablo

59 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $7 million
Developer: 34SP Development LP (EBALDC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.

The Eliza

96 Affordable Units including 20 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $20 million
Developer: Mercy Housing California
City Council District: 3
Address: 2125 Telegraph Ave.

3135 San Pablo

72 Affordable Units including 36 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $10.5 million
Developer: SAHA and St. Mary’s Center
City Council District: 3
Address: 3515 San Pablo Ave.

The source of this story is the media reltations office of District 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.

Oakland Post

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Activism

Oakland Housing and Community Development Department Awards $80.5 Million to Affordable Housing Developments

Published

10 months ago

January 30, 2025

Oakland Post

Rebecca Kaplan, interim District 2 city councilmember. File photo.

Special to The Post

The following Oakland affordable housing developments have been awarded in the current round:

Mandela Station Affordable

238 Affordable Units including 60 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $15 million + previously awarded $18 million
Developer: Mandela Station LP (Pacific West Communities, Inc. and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 1451 7th St.

Liberation Park Residences

118 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $28 million
Developer: Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zone
City Council District: 6
Address: 7101 Foothill Blvd.

34th & San Pablo

59 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $7 million
Developer: 34SP Development LP (EBALDC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.

The Eliza

96 Affordable Units, including 20 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $20 million
Developer: Mercy Housing California
City Council District: 3
Address: 2125 Telegraph Ave.

3135 San Pablo

72 Affordable Units including 36 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $10.5 million
Developer: SAHA and St. Mary’s Center
City Council District: 3
Address: 3515 San Pablo Ave.

The source of this story is media reltations office of District 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.

Oakland Post

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Alameda County

Oakland Acquisition Company’s Acquisition of County’s Interest in Coliseum Property on the Verge of Completion

The Board of Supervisors is committed to closing the deal expeditiously, and County staff have worked tirelessly to move the deal forward on mutually agreeable terms. The parties are down to the final details and, with the cooperation of OAC and Coliseum Way Partners, LLC, the Board will take a public vote at an upcoming meeting to seal this transaction.

Published

11 months ago

January 11, 2025

Oakland Post

Alameda County Board of Supervisors Chairman David Haubert. Official photo.

Special to The Post

The County of Alameda announced this week that a deal allowing the Oakland Acquisition Company, LLC, (“OAC”) to acquire the County’s 50% undivided interest in the Oakland- Alameda County Coliseum complex is in the final stages of completion.

Oakland has already finalized a purchase and sale agreement with OAC for its interest in the property. OAC’s acquisition of the County’s property interest will achieve two longstanding goals of the County:

The Oakland-Alameda Coliseum complex will finally be under the control of a sole owner with capacity to make unilateral decisions regarding the property; and
The County will be out of the sports and entertainment business, free to focus and rededicate resources to its core safety net

In an October 2024 press release from the City of Oakland, the former Oakland mayor described the sale of its 50% interest in the property as an “historic achievement” stating that the transaction will “continue to pay dividends for generations to come.”

The Board of Supervisors is pleased to facilitate single-entity ownership of this property uniquely centered in a corridor of East Oakland that has amazing potential.

“The County is committed to bringing its negotiations with OAC to a close,” said Board President David Haubert.