Non Profit Issues Challenge In Search For The Cure

The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the development of safe, effective and accessible, preventive HIV vaccines, has posted a $150,000 challenge on to AIDS researchers. The challenge seeks proposals for and a sample of the protein that will provide researchers with new avenues for furthering HIV vaccine design and development.

Specifically, the challenge calls for the design of a protein that mimics the part of the HIV envelope that is first visible to the body's host defenses. In animal models and other experimental systems, this protein has triggered antibody immune responses that have successfully blocked HIV from entering cells and thus prevented HIV infection. Unfortunately, the protein, in its natural state, is unstable and breaks down easily when it enters the body. To date, investigators have been unable to engineer a stable protein that remains consistently intact in laboratory testing. The winner of this challenge will be the researcher who successfully designs and creates a stable functional HIV envelope protein, which will then be tested to see what kinds of immune responses it generates. If the protein is sufficiently immunogenic, (able to block HIV from entering human cells) researchers will also be eligible for a bonus of up to $1M dollars and/or the opportunity to pursue their research further with support from IAVI.

In 2007, 33.2 million people were living with HIV worldwide, with at least 70 percent of those in clinical need of ARV treatments worldwide not receiving them. IAVI estimates that the potential positive impact of HIV vaccines would be enormous, especially in the developing world.

The challenge is being supported in part by The Rockefeller Foundation, as part of its Accelerating Innovation for Development Initiative, which supports the application of new innovation models to solve challenges facing poor or vulnerable populations around the world. Source press release.
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