Gates Foundation gives $700K research grant to Mayo Clinic

For the first time ever, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given the Mayo Clinic in Rochester a grant.

The Rochester Post-Bulletin reports that the foundation has awarded the clinic a two-year, $700,000 grant for research into a test that will help infants in third-world countries with "environmental enteropathy."

The Mayo says the condition is a small intestinal illness that "disturbs digestion and absorption of nutrients, which leaves the infants malnourished."

Mayo researchers say the goal is to "define a simple test that can be used to identify afflicted infants," the Post-Bulletin reports.