Came across this...
The couple's foundation wants researchers from around the world to join forces
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced a $287 million donation Wednesday to fund AIDS vaccine research and establish a global network focused on vaccine development.
The main goal of the 16 individual grants is to shift the development process from independent efforts in separate laboratories to large-scale collaborative efforts stretching across many labs and countries.
"Traditional ways of making vaccines, which have worked well against other diseases, have largely failed for HIV," said Dr. Giuseppe Pantaleo of the University Hospital Center of Vaudois in Lausanne, Switzerland, one of the grantees. "Success will require bold new scientific approaches."
Eleven of the new grants, totaling $195 million, are for multinational projects to improve the ability of potential vaccines to stimulate the two kinds of immunity: antibodies that can attack a broad spectrum of viruses and immune cells that can destroy infected cells before viruses reproduce.
Pantaleo and others, for example, will attempt to modify existing vaccine candidates based on poxviruses so that they provoke a much stronger immune response.
"A vaccine that would provide as much as 60 percent efficacy would make a huge impact on the HIV epidemic," said Dr. Juliana McElrath of the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center in Seattle, another grantee.
Nearly 100 AIDS vaccine candidates are now in trials around the world, but experts agree that none is likely to provide significant protection against the virus.
The other five grants, totaling $92 million, are for establishing central laboratories to enhance collaboration among the researchers.
Three laboratory networks — headquartered at Duke University, the National Institutes of Health and the University of Washington — will measure immune responses provoked by vaccine candidates, allowing for the first time a direct comparison between all the different approaches. A fourth laboratory will provide a repository in Germany for research specimens, while the fifth at the Hutchison cancer center will serve as a data and statistical management center for the networks.
Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, welcomed the Gates funds, but said much more money will be needed.
His group reported that $682 million was spent worldwide on AIDS vaccine research in 2004, the latest year for which figures are available. The group's best estimate of current needs, he added, is in excess of $1 billion per year.
The Gates Foundation has now donated more than $6 billion to global health.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4059098.html
Well, shit.
The couple's foundation wants researchers from around the world to join forces
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced a $287 million donation Wednesday to fund AIDS vaccine research and establish a global network focused on vaccine development.
The main goal of the 16 individual grants is to shift the development process from independent efforts in separate laboratories to large-scale collaborative efforts stretching across many labs and countries.
"Traditional ways of making vaccines, which have worked well against other diseases, have largely failed for HIV," said Dr. Giuseppe Pantaleo of the University Hospital Center of Vaudois in Lausanne, Switzerland, one of the grantees. "Success will require bold new scientific approaches."
Eleven of the new grants, totaling $195 million, are for multinational projects to improve the ability of potential vaccines to stimulate the two kinds of immunity: antibodies that can attack a broad spectrum of viruses and immune cells that can destroy infected cells before viruses reproduce.
Pantaleo and others, for example, will attempt to modify existing vaccine candidates based on poxviruses so that they provoke a much stronger immune response.
"A vaccine that would provide as much as 60 percent efficacy would make a huge impact on the HIV epidemic," said Dr. Juliana McElrath of the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center in Seattle, another grantee.
Nearly 100 AIDS vaccine candidates are now in trials around the world, but experts agree that none is likely to provide significant protection against the virus.
The other five grants, totaling $92 million, are for establishing central laboratories to enhance collaboration among the researchers.
Three laboratory networks — headquartered at Duke University, the National Institutes of Health and the University of Washington — will measure immune responses provoked by vaccine candidates, allowing for the first time a direct comparison between all the different approaches. A fourth laboratory will provide a repository in Germany for research specimens, while the fifth at the Hutchison cancer center will serve as a data and statistical management center for the networks.
Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, welcomed the Gates funds, but said much more money will be needed.
His group reported that $682 million was spent worldwide on AIDS vaccine research in 2004, the latest year for which figures are available. The group's best estimate of current needs, he added, is in excess of $1 billion per year.
The Gates Foundation has now donated more than $6 billion to global health.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4059098.html
Well, shit.
