CHRF Receives Wellcome Discovery Award to Study Severe RSV Infections in Children

We are thrilled to share that the Child Health Research Foundation (CHRF), Bangladesh, has received the prestigious Wellcome Discovery Award!

Building on CHRF’s surveillance platforms, this project brings together single-cell genomics, air–liquid interface cell culture models, flow cytometry, and risk factor analysis across community and hospital cohorts in Bangladesh to understand why RSV becomes severe in some children.

The Wellcome Discovery Award is provided by Wellcome, a UK–based charitable foundation. This highly competitive funding programme supports ambitious, curiosity-driven research into the fundamental biology of health and disease.

Read our press release here!

This is More Than a Grant. It is a Milestone for Bangladesh!

This project advances our mission to generate evidence that improves child health in Bangladesh and globally. To our knowledge, CHRF is the first South Asian institution to receive a Wellcome Discovery Award as the lead applicant. For a Bangladeshi, non-profit research organisation built patiently over years by local scientists, clinicians, trainees, nurses, lab technologists, and community workers, this moment belongs to many.

From sequencing the first SARS-CoV-2 genome in Bangladesh, to building surveillance systems for infectious diseases like sepsis, typhoid and RSV, to reaching thousands of young scientists through Building Scientists for Bangladesh, this award reflects a shared journey toward science that is done in Bangladesh, by Bangladesh, for the children of Bangladesh.

And now, we take the next step.

Why RSV, Why Now?

Through this Wellcome Discovery project, in the next 7 years we will examine how RSV infection, the child’s immune response, and environmental exposures shape the nasal mucosa and influence disease severity. By studying infection at single-cell resolution, we aim to advance our understanding of the full disease spectrum ranging from common cold to severe pneumonia. We also hope to uncover biological insights that guide vaccines, therapies, and public health policy for children in Bangladesh and globally.

This work connects directly to CHRF’s long-term RSV surveillance studies and our commitment to using data to improve child health.

A Collaboration Built on Respect and Shared Science

We are honoured to strengthen our existing partnership with Boston Children’s Hospital. Together, we bring expertise in single-cell genomics, mucosal immunology, respiratory biology, and field epidemiology. Just as important, this collaboration reflects a shared belief that cutting-edge science should be led from the places most affected by disease.

Knowledge will flow both ways. Trainees will train together. Data will be analysed together. Discoveries will be shared together.

This is what equitable global science looks like.

With Gratitude

This achievement belongs to our CHRF family, our laboratory teams, clinicians, field workers, data scientists, trainees, collaborators, and the families who trust us with their children’s samples and stories.

Many of you have walked with us through long nights in the lab, impossible grant deadlines, travel disruptions, and the everyday challenges of building science in resource-limited settings. This award carries your fingerprints.

We are also deeply grateful to the Wellcome Trust for believing in locally led science in Bangladesh.

Looking Forward

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