In anticipation of this year’s #GrandChallenges annual meeting, we are spotlighting five local innovators making a difference in their communities. ➡️Swipe to see the problems being tackled by these changemakers! 1: Dr. Fredros Okumu is the director of Science at the Ifakara Health Institute. Since 2008 Dr. Okumu has devoted his time to studying human-mosquito interactions and accelerating current efforts to eliminate malaria. Photo credit: ©Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation/Frederic Courbet 2: Dr. Jessica E. Manning is an assistant clinical investigator at the Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research at NiAid and Science Attaché, U.S. Embassy Phnom Penh and NIAID ICER CAMBODIA. The focus of her research is in infectious disease and internal medicine. Photo credit: Dr. Jessica E. Manning 3: Iruka Okeke is a Professor of Pharmaceutical Microbiology at the University of Ibadan. She is a bacterial geneticist who researches enteric bacteria. Photo credit: ©Gates Archive/Mulugeta Ayene 4: Abdoulaye Djimdé is the CAMES Professor of Parasitology and Mycology and Honorary Faculty at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. Djimdé is currently a Calestrous Juma fellow working on disease surveillance and genomics. Photo credit: Abdoulaye Djimdé 5: Isabella Oyier is an Associate Professor and Head of Bioscience at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kenya. She is a Calestous Juma Fellow and is working on a malaria molecular surveillance platform. Photo credit: Isabella Oyier