Gates push to speed up HIV vaccine work.

[ScienceGuy25]

More money and a big name is always good.

http://uk.oneworld.net/article/view/136690/1/5795

[J220]

I  am not clear, are these research paths for a preventive vaccine only, or do they also include a theraputic vaccine? I read them over briefly but since medicine is not my specifc field of expertise I am not sure if the things they were talking about were for preventive or therepeutic use.

Still, this is very encouraging, not only from the funding standpoint, but from the collaborative approach. Fingers crossed! J.

[ScienceGuy25]

Well J 

I don't want to get myself in trouble here so let me preclude this statement by saying i only have a very limited knowledge of the Gates foundation's donation.

I believe that what the foundation is attempting to do is create a good collaborative effort between many leading scientists in the field.  Rather than small groups working against each other and possibly wasting time and money, they will fund many groups to work together, freely share information and hopefully speed progress toward vaccine development.

Again don't quote me, but I think the intent here is to develop capable of neutralizing the virus.  Whether or not this vaccine will work in people who are already infected is all dependent on the specific design of the vaccine.  IE) is it simply preventing HIV from getting into cells or is it able to elicit a strong humoral and cellular response to the virus and viral infected cells such that the body would be capable of clearing the infection. 

In any case I think its a step in the right direction and should bring about useful new information!

[HIVworker]

That is the correct way to discuss something where you are providing an informed best guess. I appreciate you doing that.

Thank you.

R

[lydgate]

My field of expertise: "I appreciate your doing that." Gerund, almost always, requires the possessive. It's certainly my preference, though of course there are instances when insisting on the rule does violence to the language.  Jay

[HIVworker]

whatever

[ScienceGuy25]

LoL - no problem HIV worker - as i said i'm generally careful in that regard.

Lydgate we appreciate your expertise.  As I'm sure you can tell from many of the posts while some of us know a good deal about science our grammar could certainly use some improvements.  I think it gets to be especially horrendous in these forums.


You can be my scientific editor any time..keep up the good work

[dario]

dear folks,

do you think it is more useful to spend money researching about new drugs rather than vaccines?

D

[HIVworker]

I think it is important to do both. There is an immediate need for new drugs to combat resistance and simplify therapy (and decrease side effects) and there is a need for a vaccine to help prevent the spread of the disease. A Vaccine is more viable than new drugs for the third world as prevention over treatment has had precedent for working in the past for other diseases in those areas (except malaria).

The supply routes and infrastructure to provide current therapy in the third world has proved to be a bigger challenge and is more of an obstacle than over-priced drugs. However, vaccination programs would not take as much to implement right now. Only problem is that it has to work against as many HIV strains as possible. Lower than 50% would be dangerous as it would allow people to believe they were immune but were not. However, it might help build the infrastructure that is currently missing in those areas and help improve medical health for diseases other than HIV too.

So I vote both.

R

Edited to remove spelling errors and typos   

[ScienceGuy25]

I second HIV Worker's post regarding drugs versus vaccine.  The only thing I would add is that we should remember the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive.  That is, any sort of basic science research aimed at developing a drug or vaccine could and often does end up being important information, that maybe be useful in furthering the development of both vaccines and drugs.

[J220]

That's the hope I suppose, in regards to the Enterprise's search for a preventive vaccine, that whatever they find will both clear and prevent infection. There is no question, however, that this new collaborative approach should yield interesting results.