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AIDS VACCINE RESEARCH LABORATORYDavid Watkins, P.I. |
With 7,000 people dying each day of HIV/AIDS, the development of an effective vaccine remains one of the world's top public health priorities. Historically successful approaches to vaccine development that elicit mostly antibody responses have proven unsuccessful for HIV. Therefore, we are attempting to develop vaccines that elicit cellular immune responses. To understand these responses in detail, we utilize the SIV-infected rhesus macaque as an animal model. This model system allows us to follow all the cellular immune responses to the virus throughout the course of infection in both vaccinated and naive macaques. Recently, our group has been engaged in several exciting studies:
First, we have generated high levels of vaccine-induced killer cells in macaques. Second, we have shown that cellular immune responses to HIV/SIV exert a strong selective pressure on the virus in the chronic phase of infection, implying an important role in the containment of viral infection. We have also identified an entirely novel category of virus-specific killer cell responses that emerge during the first weeks of infection that select for viruses resistant to these responses by eight weeks post-infection.
Currently, our lab is exploring why certain rare individuals (elite controllers) control replication of highly pathogenic AIDS viruses. We are also attempting to understand why attenuated viruses protect from subsequent challenges with highly pathogenic viruses. Understanding the basis for control of viral replication in both elite controllers and in macaques vaccinated with attenuated viruses will aid innovative vaccine design. There are many exciting opportunities for graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and technicians in our laboratory. Individuals will require initiative, a high level of personal motivation, and the ability to work effectively as a member of a research team.
