CHAVI will receive $15 million in its first year and may receive more than $300 million in total over seven years, according to NIAID, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). CHAVI's mission is to address major obstacles to HIV vaccine development and to design, develop and test novel HIV vaccine candidates. The award will help transform HIV research in the U.S. into a more cooperative and collaborative system.
"Duke is honored to lead and coordinate this important program between universities and academic medical centers," said Victor Dzau, M.D., president and CEO of Duke University Health Systems. "This grant offers an unparalleled opportunity to perform innovative research that will lead to new design options for an HIV vaccine. With this intensive effort, we will make a substantial impact on global health."
NIAID established CHAVI in response to recommendations of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, a virtual consortium endorsed by world leaders at a G-8 summit in June 2004. The Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise was originally proposed by NIAID director Anthony Fauci, Haynes, Richard Klausner, executive director of the global health program for the Gates Foundation, and other prominent HIV vaccine researchers and public health officials in a June 2003 commentary in Science magazine.
Haynes, a professor of medicine and director of the Human Vaccine Institute at Duke, has studied HIV for more than 15 years. He is an internationally recognized leader in basic T- and B-cell immunology, retrovirus research and HIV vaccine development.
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Contact: Becky Oskin
becky.oskin@duke.edu
919-684-4966
Duke University Medical Center
15-Jul-2005