Less than one-tenth of all population-based research into dementia has been directed towards the two-thirds or more of all people with dementia who live in developing parts of the world — thus, the name "10/66".

Part of the Alzheimer's Disease International Network, 10/66 is a group of researchers who encourage active collaboration between research groups in different developing countries and between developed and developing countries. The research projects have included pilot studies to establish a method for diagnosing dementia in populations with very little formal education; qualitative studies to understand the experience of people with dementia and their carers; intervention studies that investigate whether local community health workers can contribute to care by identifying people who need help; and population-based studies to quantify prevalence and incidence in developing countries.

The 10/66 Group is part of Alzheimer's Disease International and is coordinated through Prof. Martin Prince from the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London.

The AMMA programme aims to study how the West African monsoon affects meningitis and malaria epidemics. While it focuses on one weather system, the climate factors it looks at can be generalised to other environments. For example, it examines how wind, dust, rainfall, temperature and humidity, amongst others, affect mosquito density and malaria or meningitis epidemics in people. The website also offers a key resource for researchers in the form of an open-access bibliographic database containing more than 250 scientific articles.

The Beijing Genomics Institute is the largest non-profit genomics research institute in China. Founded in July 1999 by a group of overseas Chinese scientists, BGI has been growing rapidly with the support from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. China was the only developing country member of the International Human Genome Project Consortium, and BGI played a leading role in the sequencing of chromosome 3. [Click here for Chinese version.]

CHIEX investigates how climate variability affects human health in the tropical Americas. It runs projects in Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Jamaica, Mexico and Venezuela, and focuses specifically on the spread of dengue fever and malaria in these countries. These projects have practical implications; for example, a study in Cuba led to the development of a "bioclimatological" monitoring system that uses climatic predictions to prevent and control disease.

The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research is an association of public and private members supporting a system of 16 Future Harvest centres that work in more than 100 countries to mobilise cutting-edge science to reduce hunger and poverty, improve human nutrition and health, and protect the environment. As well as taking a keen interest in agricultural biotechnology, much of CGIAR's research has direct relevance to biodiversity. CGIAR also coordinates a global network of genebanks that aims to keep the bulk of the world's plant genetic resources in the public domain.

Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative is an independent non-profit collaboration between organisations including the Ministry of Health of Malaysia, and Médecins sans Frontières that focuses on developing drugs for neglected diseases, such as leishmaniasis.

DNDi harnesses existing research and development capacity to develop these drugs, and ensures they are accessible to the developing world.

There are extensive links to articles, publications and conference reports, many available for downloading, and a petition to support DNDi in its call to governments around the world to do more for neglected diseases.

The Center for Genome Ethics, Law, & Policy - part of Duke University's Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy - was created to foster ethically responsible and socially beneficial uses of genome science, while addressing the complex ethical, legal, social and policy impacts of the genome revolution.

This not-for-profit organisation works with the private and public sectors to develop and implement quality yet affordable diagnostic technologies for diseases prevalent in developing countries, including tuberculosis, malaria and sleeping sickness. It also aims to strengthen laboratories and scale up projects to improve new tool uptake in endemic regions. The website provides information about the organisation's programmes and partners, news and a resource centre with free access to documents such as reports and scientific articles.

The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine's Gates Malaria Partnership is a collaboration between research centres in the UK, Denmark and those in n Africa, where malaria is widespread. It seeks to improve malaria control in these regions through improved training, promoting research in malaria-endemic countries, and ensuring the ability to translate knowledge into practice and treatment.

The website describes the priority areas of the partnership, including epidemic prediction and response, and household and community level interactions.