Billionaire Gates' pounds 10m gift.

BILLIONAIRE benefactor Bill Gates has donated almost pounds 10m to fund Durham University research into malaria.

The former Microsoft chief and his wife, Melinda, have donated the money from their foundation.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is backing a five-year study by Dr Gerry Killeen, Dr Ulrike Fillinger and Professor Steve Lindsay from Durham University's School of Biological and Biomed-ical Sciences.

They joined an international consortium, led by the University of Notre Dame, which has been backed by the BMGF, set up in 2000 as a philanthropic organisation which looks to solve problems faced by the world's poorest people.

Malaria kills more than one million people every year, the majority being very young children.

The research programme is studying existing control methods in urban Africa and designing better ways to deal with the disease. It will develop a study centre in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to research urban malaria transmission.

Dr Killeen said: "Even though over half the population of Africa will live in towns and cities by 2030, very little is known about malaria transmission in urban Africa and control measures specific to this context remain to be proven.

"This grant will allow us to provide answers for national malaria control programmes with information on planning and implementing control measures."

CAPTION(S):

RICH: Bill Gates; RESEARCH: Prof Steve Lindsay, centre, carrying out investigations into malaria in Tanzania