May 11, 2011
The Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland's School of Medicine has been awarded $23.4 million to continue research on a promising AIDS vaccine. The institute is headed by Dr. Robert Gallo, the co-discoverer of HIV who helped develop a blood test for the virus. The vaccine candidate neutralizes many different strains of HIV, compared to others that only responded to single strains or narrow ranges of the virus, say researchers. Gallo's team will conduct studies along with investigators from the Military HIV Research Program and Sanofi Pasteur. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has contributed $16.8 million; additional funding comes from the US Army, the National Institutes of Health, and others.