The federal government is going to invest another $139 million into an HIV vaccine research program at Duke University.
The National Institutes of Health, through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, will provide the Duke Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology-Immunogen Discovery (CHAVI-ID) with an initial grant of $19.9 million for the first year of a seven-year award.
The grant is a follow-on to one that expired in June.
In December, Duke received a grant of more than $24 million from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for HIV research.
Dr. Barton Haynes of Duke will direct the program as he did the original one in the Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology (CHAVI) consortium. Haynes is also director of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute and the Frederic M. Hanes Professor of Medicine and Immunology. He has been involved in HIV research for more than 22 years.
Scripps Research Institute received a similar follow-on grant.
“Duke is deeply honored to be selected again, as we now build on all the progress made in the initial CHAVI grant and now focus the effort on design of immunogens capable of preventing HIV transmission and protecting people worldwide,” said Victor Dzau, Duke’s chancellor for Health Affairs and CEO of Duke University Health System.
NIAID originally 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.
