The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has announced funding to establish the Centre for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology (CHAVI).

Barton Haynes, of Duke University has been selected to lead the CHAVI consortium. The consortium may receive more than $300 million over seven years, $15 million of which is designated for its first year. In its first year, CHAVI will develop an expansion plan that will undergo scrutiny by an external advisory group.

CHAVI's mission is to address key immunological roadblocks to HIV vaccine development and to design, develop and test novel HIV vaccine candidates.

"Despite a wide variety of approaches to HIV vaccine development by some of the world's best scientists, we have not yet found a successful vaccine," Anthony S. Fauci, director of NIAID said adding, "CHAVI will be a key component of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise that was proposed in 2003. With this award, we are expanding the enterprise of HIV vaccine development beyond high-quality but separate research projects to a high-quality cooperative and collaborative research system."

CHAVI will focus on —Understanding what happens in the earliest stages of HIV infection and what events take place in the immune system soon after HIV enters the body; Using new research tools to determine how the immune system of the macaque monkey fends off SIV, the macaque equivalent of HIV; Designing, developing and testing improved HIV vaccines that can stimulate enduring immune responses, particularly at the body's mucosal surfaces (those found at the entryways) and in the blood; Evaluating promising HIV vaccine candidates in small-scale clinical trials.