 
Center For Vaccine Development Receives Largest Grant Ever Awarded to SLU |
The Saint Louis University Center for Vaccine Development is one of nine U.S. clinical units to receive funding as part of the newly formed HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), established by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The five-year, $8.45 million grant is the largest ever awarded Saint Louis University research. The grant will bring the University $5.9 million in direct costs and $2.55 million in indirect costs. "Investigators at Saint Louis University are committed to seeing the successful completion of the development of an AIDS vaccine," said Robert B. Belshe, M.D., Adorjan Professor of internal medicine, director of the division of infectious diseases and director for the Center for Vaccine Development at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. "It has proven to be difficult, but we feel that we are being successful."
The HVTN, expected to be fully established within a month, will provide a comprehensive, clinically based network to develop and test preventive HIV vaccines. In addition to units based in the U.S., participating sites will be located in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin American and the Caribbean.
"This NIAID network creates a coordinated, global framework in which to conduct clinical HIV vaccine research," said NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. "The HVTN will strengthen and expand our HIV vaccine studies both domestically in countries devastated by the AIDS pandemic."
NIAID is providing over $29 million for the first year of the network. The organizations' clinical trails sites are coordinated by a Leadership Group that includes a Core Operations Center, which will provide administrative, technical and operational support, a Statistical and Data Management Center and a Central Laboratory.
NIAID's HIV vaccine research program was previously centered in two separate groups: the U.S.-based AIDS Vaccine Evaluation Group (AVEG), which carried out early-stage testing of vaccine candidates; and the HIV Network for Prevention Trials (HIVNET), which conducted domestic and international trials of HIV vaccine and other prevention strategies. AVEG and HIVNET investigators, along with other scientists worldwide, underwent a competitive, peer-reviewed evaluation process, during the creation of the new network.
The new network will build on the many accomplishments of the AVEG and HIVNET, with a comprehensive research agenda that addresses many promising scientific opportunities to develop an HIV vaccine. Scientific creativity, along with collaboration between private industry, academia and government, are key aspects of the HVTN's design.
The HVTN will conduct all phases of clinical trails, from evaluating candidate vaccines for safety and the ability to stimulate immune response, to testing vaccine effectiveness. The network's web of U.S.-based units integrated with sites around the globe, will allow the HVTN to expand rapidly to carry out larger scale studies of suitable vaccines. Many of the international institutions already have extensive experience in HIV prevention studies. Through the leadership of local scientists and in partnership with other stakeholders, the network's international components provided a critical capability to help identify vaccines appropriate for the regions hit hardest by AIDS.
"We expect to increase momentum from this well-orchestrated alliance," said Dr. Belshe. "And we are especially grateful to the community that has come forward to volunteer for vaccine trials, contributing to our progress."
Core operations for the network will be at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC) in Seattle. Other domestic sites participating in the HVTN are located at the: University of Maryland, Baltimore; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland; San Francisco Department of Health, California; Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts; Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee; University of Rochester, New York; University of Alabama, Birmingham.
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