Stressing on accelerating HIV/AIDS prevention related research including vaccines and microbicides development, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will soon begin collaborative programme on “HIV/AIDS and Microbicides” to promote HIV/AIDS research in the related areas.

The programme aims to support a wide range of anti-HIV candidates including small chemically defined molecules, indigenous compounds, formulations, nucleotides, peptides and proteins targeting a range of relevant targets using a diverse range of delivery systems. In addition to iterative development of candidates, the programme aims to support studies in order to advance the understanding of HIV immunopathogenesis and host immune responses.

The programme also targets to accelerate research that will generate knowledge and develop state-of-the-art technologies to provide the basis for the development of HIV vaccines and novel therapies against HIV including microbicides.

The new collaborative programme will promote HIV/AIDS research in the areas such as 'HIV pathogenesis and vaccine related research' and 'microbicides related research'.

The HIV pathogenesis and vaccine related research will focus on the areas of molecular surveillance of HIV incidence, genetic diversity and anti-retroviral drug resistance mutations; genetic basis for HIV transmission, resistance and disease progression; development of models for HIV infection and their applications in viral pathogenesis and drug discovery; elucidate protective, non-protective and deleterious pathogen and host factors that are important for HIV infection; delineate the balance between virulence and host immune response; define molecular networks including signaling pathways to characterize HIV infection; development of optimized functional and high throughput assays to enable understanding of HIV immunopathogenesis and host immunity; generation of broadly cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies; design and characterization of immunogens; design and development of inhibitors of gene expression in HIV; and development of cost-effective assays and algorithms with improved specificity and reliability for determining HIV incidence through identification of biomarkers.

And the 'microbicides related research' will focus on development of candidate microbicides alone and/or in combination to prevent HIV transmission including indigenous compounds; development of biological and surrogate markers of safety or protection; use of genomics or proteomics to identify novel candidate agents or targets for microbicide strategies; preclinical Pharmacokinetics/Pharmacodynamics; acute, chronic and extended exposure toxicity testing including genotoxicity and carcinogenicity of candidate microbicides; innate, adaptive and mal-adaptive responses in mucosal/epithelial tissues, semen and other secretions before and after the use of microbicides; and measurement of local tissue, target cell systemic absorption following topical microbicide use and relate this to microbicide safety, efficacy and potency.

Scientists working in universities, research institutions, public and private organizations having sound scientific track records are eligible for this programme.