May 25, 2000

BIRMINGHAM, AL — The AIDS Vaccine Research Center at UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) has been selected by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) as one of nine U.S. sites to house a new HIV Vaccine Trails Network. The network, expected to be in place within a month, will provide a comprehensive, clinically based network for developing and testing HIV vaccines. NIAID will provide the network with more than $29 million in funding during the first year.

"The network creates a coordinated, global framework in which to conduct clinical HIV vaccine research," says Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, NIAID director. "It will strengthen and expand our HIV vaccine studies both here and in countries devastated by the AIDS epidemic."

"We have had limited success in HIV vaccine research since 1988 when efforts first began," says Dr. Paul Goepfert, assistant professor of medicine at UAB. "That is changing. The government and other groups are now supporting vaccine research full force, so the potential for positive results is much greater."

NIAID's HIV vaccine research program was previously centered in two groups: the U.S.-based AIDS Vaccine Evaluation Group, which carried out early-state testing of vaccine candidates, and the HIV Network for Prevention Trials, which conducted domestic and international trials of HIV vaccines and other prevention strategies. UAB researchers represented both groups. UAB underwent a competitive, peer-reviewed evaluation process to be selected for the new network.

International sites also have been named as partners in the research effort. The sites are located in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. "The added international sites are a real benefit of the new network," says Goepfert. "They will play a vital role in recruiting volunteers for trials that call for large numbers of people. It's very important that these sites are part of the network as it is these countries that have been the hardest hit with the AIDS epidemic. Consequently, the international sites stand to benefit the most from an effective HIV vaccine."

Other U.S. sites are St. Louis University, Missouri; 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; and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and University of Washington, Seattle.