Scripps Florida Scientists Awarded $6 Million to Develop Alternative HIV/AIDS Vaccine

Scripps Florida Scientists Awarded $6 Million to Develop Alternative HIV/AIDS Vaccine JUPITER, FL September 23, 2015 Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have been awarded up to nearly $6 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a revolutionary HIV/AIDS alternative vaccine that has demonstrated great potential in animal models.

The research, to be led by TSRI Professor Michael Farzan, will be supported by four years of funding the first grant awarded by the Gates Foundation to a Scripps Florida scientist.

I'm grateful to the Gates Foundation for its strong support of our research and for its continued commitment to eradicating HIV/AIDS throughout the world, Farzan said.

Farzan brings an innovative approach to combating HIV. The approach works by coaxing muscle cells into producing inhibitor proteins that block key sites on the virus's surface used to attach and invade human immune cells fooling the virus into thinking it is binding to a human cell.

Unable to attach to cells, and unable to reproduce, the virus simply floats impotently in the blood stream.

Farzan and colleagues' breakthrough research received worldwide attention when announced earlier this year in the journal Nature. When the drug candidate, called eCD4-lg, was tested in the laboratory and in animal models, the results were so powerful and universally effective that they suggested the compound's potential to serve the role of an alternative HIV/AIDS vaccine. The drug candidate offered complete protection of animal models against the virus for up to one year.

Our compound eCD4-Ig is the broadest and most potent entry inhibitor described so far, effective against all strains tested, Farzan said. At the end of our research, we expect to have enough evidence to develop a firm foundation to fully evaluate its potential as an alternative vaccine.

There are approximately 35 million people living with HIV-1 more than 25 million in sub-Saharan Africa and more than two million new infections annually.

About The Scripps Research Institute

The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) is one of the worlds largest independent, not-for-profit organizations focusing on research in the biomedical sciences. TSRI is internationally recognized for its contributions to science and health, including its role in laying the foundation for new treatments for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, hemophilia, and other diseases. An institution that evolved from the Scripps Metabolic Clinic founded by philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps in 1924, the institute now employs about 2,700 people on its campuses in La Jolla, CA, and Jupiter, FL, where its renowned scientists including two Nobel laureates work toward their next discoveries. The institutes graduate program, which awards PhD degrees in biology and chemistry, ranks among the top ten of its kind in the nation. For more information, see www.scripps.edu.

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