Bangladesh’s CHRF wins prestigious Wellcome grant to study severe viral pneumonia in children

Bangladesh’s Child Health Research Foundation (CHRF) has received a prestigious Wellcome Discovery Award to investigate severe viral pneumonia in children, marking a significant milestone for the country’s biomedical research landscape.

The award, funded by the UK-based charitable foundation the Wellcome Trust, will support an ambitious seven-year study examining how respiratory viruses interact with immune cells in the nose; the body’s first line of defense against infection.

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Pneumonia remains one of the leading causes of child mortality in Bangladesh. A key focus of the research will be Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), a major driver of hospitalisation and severe illness among young children.

Led by Senjuti Saha of CHRF, the project will collaborate with researchers from Boston Children’s Hospital to study virus–host interactions using advanced tools such as single-cell genomics and nasal mucosal organoid models.

Researchers hope the findings will shed light on why some children develop life-threatening pneumonia while others experience mild illness; insights that could inform better prevention, diagnosis and treatment strategies for respiratory infections in Bangladesh and globally.