SEATTLE, July 19 /PRNewswire/ --
-- Global network of 16 research teams to tackle critical vaccine design challenges
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced 16 grants totaling US$287 million to create an international network of highly collaborative research consortia focused on accelerating the pace of HIV vaccine development.
The grants will support a range of innovative approaches for designing an effective HIV vaccine, and bring together more than 165 investigators from 19 countries to tackle some of the biggest scientific challenges facing the field.
Eleven consortia will focus on vaccine discovery, applying new scientific knowledge and cutting-edge research techniques to create and evaluate novel vaccine candidates. These consortia will be linked to five central laboratories and data analysis facilities, enabling investigators to openly share data and compare results, and allowing the most promising vaccine approaches to be quickly prioritized for further development.
"An HIV vaccine is our best long-term hope for controlling the global AIDS epidemic, but it has proven to be a tremendously difficult scientific challenge," said Dr. Jose Esparza, senior advisor on HIV vaccines for the Gates Foundation. "We have all been frustrated by the slow pace of progress in HIV vaccine development, yet breakthroughs are achievable if we aggressively pursue scientific leads and work together in new ways."
To date, most HIV vaccine research has been conducted by small teams of investigators working independently. While important research gains have been made, there is growing recognition that these efforts need to be supported by new large-scale, collaborative projects that can produce definitive answers to complex scientific questions.
Grants Establish Vaccine Discovery Consortia, Central Facilities
The grants announced today, known collectively as the Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery, will support the following:
-- Vaccine discovery consortia: Eleven vaccine discovery consortia will
pursue a broad range of innovative strategies for designing vaccine
candidates to trigger immune responses believed to be critical for
protection against HIV.
The consortia will focus on overcoming two of the biggest scientific
obstacles currently facing the field: designing vaccine candidates
capable of eliciting effective neutralizing antibodies to HIV, and
improving current vaccine candidates so they elicit stronger and more
durable protective cellular immune responses.
-- Central facilities: Five central facilities will be established,
including three laboratory networks for measuring the immune responses
elicited by vaccine candidates, a research specimen repository, and a
data and statistical management center.
As a condition for receiving funding, the newly-funded vaccine
discovery consortia have agreed to use the central facilities to test
vaccine candidates, share information with other investigators, and
compare results using standardized benchmarks.
"These projects bring a new level of creativity and intensity to bear on major scientific challenges facing HIV vaccine development," said Dr. Nicholas Hellmann, acting director of the Gates Foundation's HIV, TB, and Reproductive Health program. "Some of the vaccine concepts that will be pursued have been talked about for years, but have never been adequately studied. If successful, they could lead to entirely new paradigms for HIV vaccine development."
"These grants signal an exciting move toward greater cooperation, coordination, and transparency among vaccine scientists," said Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC). "AIDS vaccine advocates have long said that this type of work is critical to accelerating work in the field, and this is an energizing time."
In addition, the grantees are developing global access plans to help ensure that their discoveries will be accessible and affordable for developing countries, where the vast majority of new HIV infections occur.
Range of Novel HIV Vaccine Approaches Supported
The grants announced today support a range of novel approaches for developing an effective HIV vaccine. Examples of the grants include:
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