Gates Foundation to Finance Search for H.I.V. Vaccine
The New York Times
By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN
SEATTLE, July 19 — The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded more than a quarter of a billion dollars today to researchers in 19 countries to speed the lagging development of an H.I.V. vaccine.
The grants are the largest private investment in making such a vaccine, the foundation said. They represent a significant shift in emphasis, to large-scale collaborative projects instead of small teams of researchers working independently.
The money will be given over five years to 16 scientific teams, including two New York groups. The scientists applied for the grants before Warren E. Buffett announced last month that he was giving $31 billion to the Gates Foundation.
The Gates Foundation has made development of an effective vaccine against H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, a major goal, and the new grants bring to $528 million the foundation’s investment for this purpose. By contrast, the National Institutes of Health has spent $3.4 billion since the 1980’s to develop a vaccine.
A vaccine to fight H.I.V., the human immunodeficiency virus, is the best hope to control the AIDS epidemic, health officials and experts say. But that hope had been frustrated again and again.
In 1984, Margaret M. Heckler, President Ronald Reagan’s health and human services secretary, and Dr. Robert Gallo, a discoverer of the virus, predicted an H.I.V. vaccine by 1986.
Although more than 30 experimental H.I.V. vaccines have been tested in people, only one has completed full-scale testing. That vaccine, Aidsvax, made by VaxGen, failed in a large trial that ended in 2003.
Until now, most H.I.V. vaccine research has been conducted by small independent teams. But the new grants are being structured to encourage the 165 scientists receiving them to join forces. The goal is to overcome major immunologic and other scientific hurdles that hinder development of such a vaccine.
The body can invoke two types of immune reactions to defend against dangerous infectious agents.
One way is to produce neutralizing antibodies, which are proteins that bind like a lock and key to areas on the infectious agent.
A second way, cellular immunity, is to produce T-cells that seek and destroy infected cells.
Most licensed vaccines work by stimulating the body to make neutralizing antibodies. But experimental H.I.V. vaccines have failed to produce such antibodies. The virus’s propensity to mutate and produce different genetic subtypes will require an effective vaccine to produce antibodies that can neutralize a wide range of strains.
The foundation said an effective vaccine might also have to stimulate T-cell production. Six grants will focus on ways to develop cellular immunity.
Five grants will go toward identifying new techniques to develop novel vaccines that produce neutralizing antibodies.
The remaining five grants are for creating central laboratories and information analysis facilities so that all the grant recipients can openly share data and develop standardized ways to compare their findings. Lack of such standardized tools hampers H.I.V. vaccine research, the foundation said.
A team led by Susan Zolla-Pazner, an immunologist at New York University, will receive $8.4 million to investigate the use of a specific area of the outer coat of the virus, known as the V3 region. The aim will be to develop neutralizing antibodies that attack a broad range of H.I.V. strains.
Another team led by Dr. David Ho of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in Manhattan will receive $24.7 million to design experimental H.I.V. vaccines that bind to dendritic cells. These immune cells help strengthen production of antibodies and cellular immunity.
By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN
SEATTLE, July 19 — The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded more than a quarter of a billion dollars today to researchers in 19 countries to speed the lagging development of an H.I.V. vaccine.
The grants are the largest private investment in making such a vaccine, the foundation said. They represent a significant shift in emphasis, to large-scale collaborative projects instead of small teams of researchers working independently.
The money will be given over five years to 16 scientific teams, including two New York groups. The scientists applied for the grants before Warren E. Buffett announced last month that he was giving $31 billion to the Gates Foundation.
The Gates Foundation has made development of an effective vaccine against H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, a major goal, and the new grants bring to $528 million the foundation’s investment for this purpose. By contrast, the National Institutes of Health has spent $3.4 billion since the 1980’s to develop a vaccine.
A vaccine to fight H.I.V., the human immunodeficiency virus, is the best hope to control the AIDS epidemic, health officials and experts say. But that hope had been frustrated again and again.
In 1984, Margaret M. Heckler, President Ronald Reagan’s health and human services secretary, and Dr. Robert Gallo, a discoverer of the virus, predicted an H.I.V. vaccine by 1986.
Although more than 30 experimental H.I.V. vaccines have been tested in people, only one has completed full-scale testing. That vaccine, Aidsvax, made by VaxGen, failed in a large trial that ended in 2003.
Until now, most H.I.V. vaccine research has been conducted by small independent teams. But the new grants are being structured to encourage the 165 scientists receiving them to join forces. The goal is to overcome major immunologic and other scientific hurdles that hinder development of such a vaccine.
The body can invoke two types of immune reactions to defend against dangerous infectious agents.
One way is to produce neutralizing antibodies, which are proteins that bind like a lock and key to areas on the infectious agent.
A second way, cellular immunity, is to produce T-cells that seek and destroy infected cells.
Most licensed vaccines work by stimulating the body to make neutralizing antibodies. But experimental H.I.V. vaccines have failed to produce such antibodies. The virus’s propensity to mutate and produce different genetic subtypes will require an effective vaccine to produce antibodies that can neutralize a wide range of strains.
The foundation said an effective vaccine might also have to stimulate T-cell production. Six grants will focus on ways to develop cellular immunity.
Five grants will go toward identifying new techniques to develop novel vaccines that produce neutralizing antibodies.
The remaining five grants are for creating central laboratories and information analysis facilities so that all the grant recipients can openly share data and develop standardized ways to compare their findings. Lack of such standardized tools hampers H.I.V. vaccine research, the foundation said.
A team led by Susan Zolla-Pazner, an immunologist at New York University, will receive $8.4 million to investigate the use of a specific area of the outer coat of the virus, known as the V3 region. The aim will be to develop neutralizing antibodies that attack a broad range of H.I.V. strains.
Another team led by Dr. David Ho of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in Manhattan will receive $24.7 million to design experimental H.I.V. vaccines that bind to dendritic cells. These immune cells help strengthen production of antibodies and cellular immunity.
