TSRI Researcher Awarded $4.5 Million in Grants to Support Development of AIDS Vaccine

Article

The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has been awarded two grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation totaling more than $4.5 million to fund efforts to develop a vaccine against HIV/AIDS.

“We are delighted by the Gates Foundation’s support of this critical work,” says Jim Paulson, acting president and CEO of TSRI. “With 35 million infected individuals worldwide, an effective HIV vaccine is urgently needed to slow and ultimately eliminate new infections.”

The new grants, awarded through the foundation’s Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery (CAVD) program, will provide new tools in TSRI’s High Resolution Electron Microscopy Facility to collect and process high-resolution images of HIV proteins interacting with antibodies (immune molecules), giving scientists a picture of which immunogens (substances that induce immunity) are most effective and why.

“This puts everything under one roof so we can better evaluate HIV vaccine candidates,” says TSRI associate professor Andrew Ward, who will lead the five-year initiative.

In addition, since recent advances in electron microscopy (many of them from TSRI) have enabled scientists to collect more detailed images than ever before, the grants will support the processing power necessary to handle this unprecedented amount of data.

The project dovetails with many of the ongoing HIV vaccine efforts being conducted by scientists from TSRI, CAVD and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) Neutralizing Antibody Center at TSRI. The effort also builds on last year’s grant to TSRI from the foundation, which made possible the acquisition of a powerful new Titan Krios cryo-electron microscope.

“HIV is the Mt. Everest of viruses,” says Ward. “This is an effort to screen immunogens and vaccines that have a high likelihood of success.

Source: Scripps Research Institute

Recent Videos
Pathogen Playbook Presenter: Sharon Ward-Fore, BS, MS, MT(ASCP), CIC, FAPIC
Mark Wiencek, PhD
Rebecca Crapanzano-Sigafoos, DrPH, CIC, AL-CIP, FAPIC
The CDC’s updated hospital respiratory reporting requirement has added new layers of responsibility for infection preventionists. Karen Jones, MPH, RN, CIC, FAPIC, clinical program manager at Wolters Kluwer, breaks down what it means and how IPs can adapt.
Studying for the CIC using a digital tablet and computer (Adobe Stock 335828989 by NIKCOA)
Infection Control Today's Conversations with the HSPA President, Arlene Bush, CRCST, CER, CIS, SME, DSMD, CRMST
Infection Control Today's Conversations with the HSPA President, Arlene Bush, CRCST, CER, CIS, SME, DSMD, CRMST
Cheron Rojo, BS, FCS, CHL,  CER, CFER, CRCST
Matthias Tschoerner, Dr Sc
Standardizing Cleaning and Disinfection
Related Content