The Emory Vaccine Center created and is now testing one of the world’s most promising vaccines for HIV/AIDS. This vaccine, developed by Dr. Harriet Robinson’s team, protected 96 percent of non-human primates tested from acquiring AIDS. The vaccine candidate is now being tested and licensed through GeoVax Labs; it is slated for Phase II human clinical trials in 2008.  Phase I clinical trials have shown superior immune response when the vaccine is administered.

Among the major discoveries and advances made by the Center:

• A team led by GRA Eminent Scholar Dr. Rafi Ahmed discovered that a chronic viral infection can “flip a switch” on the surface of vital immune system cells and effectively shut them down. The team was able to flip these cells – called “T cells” – back to the “on” position, enabling them to resume their fight against infection. The findings could lead to a whole new class of treatment vaccines that reinvigorate the body’s immune system so that it can conquer tumors and fight infections like hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS.
• Dr. John Altman’s work in quantifying T-cell responses is revolutionary – his paper is one of the 20 most-cited research papers in the field.
• Dr. Walt Orenstein, former director of the National Immunization Program (part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), is leading a groundbreaking vaccine policy division, one of the first of its kind in academia.
• The Center’s malaria research program has discovered several vaccine candidates and has an ongoing collaboration with the Ministry of Health in Brazil to conduct clinical research and testing in an area where malaria is endemic.

Dr. Rama Amara’s team is crafting a therapeutic vaccine to enable HIV-infected people to reduce or eliminate their dependence on antiretroviral drugs. These drugs prevent AIDS by keeping patients’ HIV-virus levels low; the vaccine is designed to do the same by teaching the immune system to recognize and control the HIV virus naturally without drugs. If preclinical results continue to be encouraging, human clinical trials will be planned.

The husband and wife team of GRA Eminent Scholar Dr. Eric Hunter and Dr. Susan Allen work with thousands of discordant couples in sub Saharan Africa, in which one partner is HIV positive and the other is negative. They counsel the couples to prevent the negative partner from being infected; however, some negative partners do become infected. Dr. Hunter then studies the HIV virus in these newly infected patients to improve AIDS vaccines. Designing a vaccine to attack the specific HIV viruses that get transmitted should lead to a more broadly effective vaccine.

Infectious disease remains the second-leading case of death worldwide. More than six million annual deaths are attributable to three diseases, for which no effective vaccines are available: AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Globally, more than 40 million people are infected with HIV/AIDS, and there are at least 300 million acute cases of malaria each year. Nearly all of the 1 million annual malaria deaths occur in children – a figure that translates into an airplane crash with 400 fatalities every day for nearly seven years.

The Emory Vaccine Center is one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive academic vaccine centers and has recruited scientists from all over the world to conduct research in Georgia. The Center was the first university-based vaccine research center in the U.S. to have an HIV/AIDS vaccine in human clinical trials.

GRA played an instrumental role in recruiting Dr. Rafi Ahmed to Georgia to start the Emory Vaccine Center; he credits GRA as being the “catalyst” for the Center. GRA provided $2 million to help build a facility and an additional $10 million for equipment over a 10-year period. GRA also recruited two additional eminent scholars, Eric Hunter and Samuel Speck, to the Center.

Since the Emory Vaccine Center was launched in 1996, its scientists have garnered more than $225 million in federal, foundation and corporate research grants. In 2006, a $2 million GRA commitment helped to increase funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to a total of $18 million.