Combating AIDS: Search for a Vaccine

Worldwide, approximately 3 1/2 million deaths every year - nearly seven deaths per minute - occur as a result of HIV/AIDS.
Health institutes around the world are seeking better treatments for HIV and a vaccine for the prevention of HIV infection and AIDS. One of those facilities is the National Cancer Institute at Frederick (NCI-Frederick), in Frederick, Maryland, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). At NCI-Frederick, a federally funded research and development center, scientists conduct research into the causes, treatment, and prevention of cancer, AIDS, and related diseases. NCI houses many labs and serves as a major biotechnology resource center for NCI/NIH.
Among the many programs at NCI-Frederick is the AIDS Vaccine Program (AVP), founded in 1987. AVP is an integrated, multidisciplinary program of basic and applied studies aimed at the development of effective vaccines for the prevention of HIV-1 infection and AIDS.
AVP is making headway in its work to find a vaccine. For example, it carries out studies aimed at improving our understanding of the aspects relevant to the development and evaluation of an effective vaccine. The work emphasizes both studies to evaluate candidate vaccines and studies aimed at characterizing basic processes that could be relevant to vaccine development. Due to this work, an extensive panel of analytical techniques has been developed. In addition to providing insights into the basic mechanisms of action of the AIDS virus, these techniques should help provide practical information to help design and develop effective vaccines for the prevention of HIV infection and AIDS.
As part of this work, scientists are gaining a better understanding of the chemical properties of a protein found in HIV. This understanding has allowed them to begin devising procedures to inactivate the ability of the virus to infect.
In addition, AVP is conducting research to identify and understand the genes involved in the human immune response. Many genes are involved in resistance to viral infection and scientists are discovering how certain molecules are involved in activating and inhibiting important immune cells. This information may lead to the discovery of more effective drugs to fight HIV and cancer, with fewer incidents of developing drug resistance.
This is just a very brief sampling of the work being done by the AVP. Many different research studies are being performed to develop a successful vaccine, led by scientists who have been dedicated to understanding and defeating HIV/AIDS since the 1980s.
The AVP is part of SAIC-Frederick's Basic Science Directorate. SAIC-Frederick, Inc., a subsidiary of SAIC, is the operations and technical support contractor for NCI-Frederick. The mission of SAIC-Frederick is to provide scientific, technical, management, administrative, and logistical support to NIH laboratory research and development activities related to the causes of and cures for cancer and AIDS and to other public health issues. SAIC-Frederick scientists conduct basic and applied research in cancer and AIDS and conduct large drug and natural product screening programs. The company also operates and manages the Advanced Biomedical Computing Center, the high performance computing center devoted exclusively to biomedical research. The center provides fully integrated, high performance, scientific computing support to the scientists of the NCI, NIH, and extramural biomedical researchers.