Researchers join forces for AIDS vaccine

International group to work with Duke

AIDS researchers, frustrated by the failure of efforts to develop a vaccine against the human immunodeficiency virus, announced Tuesday they would join forces in a worldwide collaboration that merges the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and the Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology at Duke University.

The groups would work to answer basic biological questions that have puzzled scientists in the more than three decades since AIDS was identified, thwarting an effective vaccine. Last year, according to the United Nations, 33 million people worldwide were living with HIV/AIDS, and the virus killed 2.1 million people.

Despite huge investments in research from governments, private foundations, corporations and international aid organizations, a vaccine to guard against infection has remained elusive. Last month, a vaccine being tested by the pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. was pulled from use because it did not protect against the virus and, instead, tended to increase the risk of infection.

Other experimental drugs have also shown little or no benefit in preventing the illness or reducing the virus in people who are already infected.

By joining forces, researchers hope to pool their expertise, resources and know-how.

"Solving the HIV vaccine puzzle is a scientific challenge that can only be solved through fundamental and applied research, collaboration and transparency. The work that will be done by IAVI, CHAVI and their networks of partners will rapidly enhance our understanding of HIV and help lay the groundwork for new vaccine approaches," Dr. Barton Haynes, CHAVI director and professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center, said in a prepared statement.

The collaboration will focus on four key areas, including the virus' genetic sequence, how other genetic factors control infection and why some people who are exposed to the virus don't get sick. In addition, the groups will work to develop standard ways of sampling body tissue where HIV gains entry.

CHAVI, established in 2005 by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is based at Duke University, but includes a consortium of 70 investigators at 37 institutions, including UNC-Chapel Hill. Its mission was to bring leading AIDS researchers under a single organization, to share research findings and focus on specific areas of inquiry.

The global, not-for-profit IAVI works to develop a vaccine for use throughout the world. It was founded in 1996 and is funded by foundations, individual countries, corporate donors, world aid groups and private donors.