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Seeker Spotlight: International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI)

InnoCentive recently announced the posting of one of the most ambitious Challenges we’ve seen to date – posted by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). The objective of this Challenge is to further the development of an HIV/AIDS vaccine.  I asked Kalpana Gupta, Ph.D., Director, New Alliances & Initiatives at IAVI to provide a bit of insight into the current state of HIV/AIDS vaccine development and the importance of this particular Challenge to that effort. 
 

Hi Kalpana – thanks for answering my questions today.  Can you tell me about the general state of the search for a vaccine for HIV/AIDS?

Hi Connie.  Although HIV was discovered to be the virus that causes AIDS 25 years ago, the effort to develop a preventive AIDS vaccine has only been a robustly funded initiative in the last decade. In that time, we have seen a tremendous surge in political and financial support for AIDS vaccine development. We have also seen a steady stream of incremental advances that provide the foundation for the AIDS vaccine development efforts now underway across the globe. 

This work has provided scientific evidence to suggest that an AIDS vaccine is possible and has given us clues as to what an effective human vaccine must do. For example, in studies using simian immunodeficiency virus, which causes a disease like AIDS in monkeys, we have learned that broadly neutralizing antibodies can protect against immunodeficiency virus and that live-attenuated vaccines can protect monkeys from infection with the simian equivalent of HIV. 

Today only two AIDS vaccine candidates have completed efficacy testing and unfortunately both proved non-efficacious. We are still in the early stages of the search for a preventive AIDS vaccine. It is typical for vaccines to take decades to develop. We don’t know how long it will take to develop an AIDS vaccine, but we can’t afford to give up. With 2.5 million people becoming newly infected each year, we have no choice but to search for a way prevent people from becoming infected with HIV.

Can you explain why it has been so difficult to create a vaccine for HIV?

The development of an AIDS vaccine is one of the greatest challenges currently facing medical research. HIV is a moving target. It replicates and mutates quickly, generating many subtypes of HIV. Also, unlike other diseases, HIV does not usually elicit broadly-neutralizing antibodies that can prevent infection. What’s more, today we still don’t know how best to trigger an immune response to HIV. Do we need to stimulate cellular immunity or neutralizing antibodies or immunity at the mucosal surfaces where HIV initially takes hold, or do we need a combination of these immune responses? And finally, we don’t know whether a single universal vaccine can create immunity against all the different variations of the HIV virus.

Experts don’t know how long it will take to develop an AIDS vaccine.  But we do know from history that a vaccine is the only way to end a major viral epidemic and that perseverance and long-term investment are necessary to develop any vaccine.

What appealed to you about posting your Challenge on InnoCentive?

InnoCentive has access to a diverse pool of talent from many different disciplines.  And we hope that one or more of these experts will bring a fresh perspective to one of the toughest challenges we face today in advancing AIDS vaccine research and development.

Can you tell us how a solution to this challenge will further the development of a vaccine?

Most experts agree that in order to prevent infection from HIV entirely, an effective AIDS vaccine will have to stimulate broadly neutralizing antibodies.

Today, we have identified from the blood of HIV-infected individuals several broadly neutralizing antibodies that can prevent infection from HIV. What we don’t yet have are immunogens that can stimulate the production of these antibodies. IAVI is challenging InnoCentive Solvers to develop a stable immunogen based on the part of the HIV envelope that is first visible to the body. Immunogens using the HIV envelope have been successfully tested in animal models. The challenge now is to produce an immunogen that remains consistently intact in laboratory testing.  If successful, InnoCentive solvers will have overcome one of the major hurdles facing the development of the next generation of AIDS vaccine candidates.

This Challenge is a bit different than most, because it offers the opportunity for a tiered reward.  Can you tell me how that would work?

A Solver who successfully provides an envelope trimer mimic with the desired antigenicity will initially receive $150K.  IAVI will confirm these results independently and continue to test this protein. If this protein is able to generate broadly neutralizing antibody responses that can effectively thwart viral infection, IAVI will consider providing researchers with a bonus of up to $1 million and/or the opportunity to pursue further related research with support from IAVI.

Thank you – I know our Solvers appreciate knowing a bit more backstory on our Seekers.  Good luck with your Challenge!

Thanks.

 

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  • http://- Marcin Krzykawski

    So fare I understand you need stable antigen.
    I have some ideas how to mimic the envelope trimer of HIV but I’m just a student – fourth year of biotechnology. Un till I’ll get to Ph.D. it may happened that I’ll really be able to start the research on this Idea during my postdoctoral fellowship. In the shortest way 7 years. For a good lab, it would be something between 4 and 8 months to develop antibodies. Sorry but I feel quite strange with the feeling that for 6 years more people will have no vaccine just because I have no possibility to try to solve this problem. If anybody will read this message please, a least share my feelings.

  • http://www.thecreatorschannel.com Margo Siekerka

    Both my brother and myself testing as not having a virus we had (herpes). It seems to me that there must be something I could lend toward an immunization for herpes, but I also suspect there’s something in my blood (he is deceased – I learned about his being my parallel as a result of testing for stem cell transplant), which might be of use in defeating the aids virus.
    Problem is = who to tell who wants to explore the option.
    One medical researcher told me that my blood would be worth billions if I were correct. He hasn’t followed up with me, however.
    Food for thought.
    M

  • http://www.workisplay.com Alvaro Vargas

    I was thinking about the vaccine for the AIDS virus one day when discussing the issues surrounding it one day with some scientist friends. My background was first in advertising, and then anthropology, so please bear with me, as my potential contribution is based on some “what if” scenarios that come from the way that science makes sense to me.

    So, I was thinking, if the virus has genetic material that is passed on in replication, then this genetic material is made up of the four bases, GCTA. Given that there is a finite number of bases from which to generate the different permutations, the number of variations of the genetic material would also be finite — albeit I am sure that this would still be a very large number.

    The idea, then, is to input all the data for the genetic coding of HIV viruses that we have up to now into a program that will use this data, and from it, extract an algorithm. Once an algorithm is extracted — as complex as it may be — it can then be tested by going back into the timeline of the virus mutations at any point, running the algorithm, and seeing if it can successfully predict the next permutation on the timeline. If we can tweak get the algorithm to do this consistently, then we may very well have a way of predicting future permutations of the virus, thus allowing us to create a vaccine for the virus at its future state.

    If we can prevent the virus from mutating beyond a certain point by dealing with it in this manner, then the virus would no longer necessarily be a moving target, and we can deal with the strains of it that are out there. Alternatively, if the virus continues to mutate, with the algorithm, we can at least know what vectors or paths the virus will be mutating in, thus allowing us to know where to target its next iteration — or even an iteration a couple of permutations from now.

    I would love some feedback, as this is an idea that I have been thinking about for some time, and have not know of a forum in which to discuss it with potentially qualified people until now.

    Thank you for your time.

    Alvaro.

  • http://www.bioinformaticsonlie.com jitendra narayan

    That is really very interesting idea.

    We can do one thing simply mutate the genetic material so that it can’t replicate.

  • http://www.bioinformaticsonline.com jitendra narayan

    That is really very interesting idea.

    We can do one thing simply mutate the genetic material so that it can’t replicate.

  • http://alternativedesignconcepts.us Dennis means

    First off I’d like to say that Alvaro Vargas has a great idea to lend to the creation of a vaccine. However there may be other alternatives at least toward the treatment of HIV. I think you might find it of interest to review the facts about how we have killed the virus in previous studies. First there’s Bleach. It kills HIV undeniably. Unfortunately we can’t inject bleach into people without killing the patient as well.
    Second we know that the HIV virus can only live in a warm body, otherwise the virus becomes dead or dormant.
    So with this information at hand I’d like to make some suggestions that might help to at least create a treatment that may lead to positive results, and possibly a new way to find or create that protein you’re searching for.

    On the islands off the coast of Florida, there is a little known practice called Voodoo. Some of you may have heard of it. Don’t think me crazy yet Voodoo is not the answer. However: there is a practice associated with it that can prove promising.
    The witch doctors have been using a trick for years that they call bringing the dead back to life.
    It consists of a person drinking a potion that seemingly poisons the person, and kills him or her. After some time and some shamanic rituals the person comes back to life as if nothing happened.
    Here’s the interesting part. The potion is of highly secrecy in the Voodoo practice. What is known is that the potions ingredients consist of the poison from the Fugu fish along with some other things that when combined and drank, the person falls into a deathlike state, where their body temperature falls, their breathing slows to nearly nothing, and their heart rate slows to near undetectable. This is how the near death state is achieved within the practice.
    Now this may sound crazy, but if this potion were recreated in a lab environment, and given to a patient with HIV, while the body of the patient is being cooled to a temperature above freezing point but below 60 degrees f, and sustained for a period of 18 to 48 hours, with additional infusions of non-infected bone marrow and or HIV resistant antibodies, then there might be a chance for the treatment and possible cure for the virus.
    Here’s how it works. The potion slows the bodies functions such as heart rate and breathing to a point that the body is in a coma state, so the body needs less oxygen to maintain survivability during the rest of the procedure. As the body is in this state, the body temperature is lowered with a controlled environment to avoid getting too cold or too warm. This also makes the body use less oxygen and food, creating a condition that the HIV virus cannot sustain itself in. The virus will then begin to die or become dormant. With the additional infusion of fresh HIV resistant antibodies and or Bone Marrow during this procedure, It will give the antibodies time to attack the HIV virus, and possibly defeat the Virus all together. After the time has passed, and the body of the patient warmed again to normal body temperature, The patient can be warmed and revived. More observations will be necessary to determine if the person is HIV free. If in fact the person is cured, there should them be a HIV resistant strain of antibodies produced in the patient that can then be used for further research toward finding a vaccine.
    As a final thought, I hope this combination of treatments can be useful in finding a cure for HIV.
    Since I am not a doctor or scientist with access the facilities to further research and testing, It is my hope that someone will read this and try this method at least once, if not at least to see if there is any viability to this theory. All of the principles of this method work on paper and correspond with what already has been proven by factual evidence. Of course, there may be some things to work out as with anything that has promise in science and medicine.
    I wish you luck in finding a cure.

  • Ricardo Miranda

    Someone who has this answer will not share here for sure. Don’t be so innocent!

    It is such a challenge to create a notebook battery to take 1 month being using full-time.

    Something are priceless.

  • Alvaro Vargas

    Well Ricardo, perhaps if more people shared things like this then the world would be a better place. And, no, I don’t think that’s being Pollyanna or Naive. We all love to say that you can’t put a price on human life. but I think what we really mean when we say that is “you can’t put a price on MY human life”. This has to change.

    In other news, a friend of mine came across this. It looks like it may be very relevant here!

    http://tinyurl.com/2h6ngp

    Greetings to All!

  • http://www.naymz.com/micro/robert_nowinski Robert Nowinski

    Fantastic interview going touching on the difficulties of creating a vaccine for HIV.

    Robert Nowinski
    http://www.robertnowinski.net

  • http://naturalherpescures.net Lynda Jolie

    Hi there I like your post

  • http://hivprevention.co.uk Alfred Nassim

    Please excuse me, I am not a microbiologist or suchlike.

    The way I see it, HIV and a number of other sexually-transmitted infections are social diseases. I realize that a lot of people get infected by dirty needles and suchlike but the vast majority get infected while having sex. The second point to note is that the Pareto Principle applies here – many people either never have sex or only have sex with one partner or very few partners while a very few others have it with a phenomenal number of different partners.

    It seems clear to me that given limited resources, these resources should be directed towards those who are most prolific in the number of their sexual partners (“network hubs”) and the frequency of their intercourse with them – having sex once with a different partner every year for ten years is different from having frequent sex with 10 different people over a period of 10 years.

    I patented in the US many years ago a concept that protected the anonymity of its users while allowing their partners to check on their health status. This concept, which is entirely ethical, was accepted as a “medical device” by the FDA. My website http://hivprevention.co.uk explains in some detail how it works.

    Many people who have studied this entirely practical proposal have expressed scepticism as they wanted a system that was infallible. We all know that even if an excellent vaccine were to be developed tomorrow that level of protection would not be realistic so please look at my proposal with that fact at the back of your mind.

    Others seem to think that it is impossible to use it for a vast number of people or even the whole population. We don’t need to do that either for if only the “hubs” of the network were included the system would move from a positive-feedback system (ever growing) to a negative-feedback system (under control and diminishing).

    Also, you should keep in mind that Facebook has 400 million active users. In a country like the USA, if the one million more sexually active and promiscuous people were to use my concept, the sexual transmission of HIV would almost disappear.