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Researchers call for sustained funding to move HIV vaccine R&D ahead

At the AIDS Vaccine 2010 conference last week in Atlanta, researchers emphasized the need for sustained funding for vaccine research and development in order to further progress toward an HIV vaccine, SciDev.Net reports.

5 Oct 2010

Media examines PEPFAR hearing, calls for more HIV funding ahead of Global Fund replenishment meeting

Ahead of the replenishment meeting for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which kicks off today in New York, Inter Press Service examines the Obama administration's HIV/AIDS funding commitments.

5 Oct 2010

African leaders to meet in Zambia to discuss country responses to HIV/AIDS

Later this month, "[f]our former heads of state and other high-level African leaders who are the champions for a HIV/AIDS-free generation project" will travel to Zambia at the request of Zambian President Rupiah Banda for a meeting to discuss ways to strengthen the HIV/AIDS response in Africa, Times of Zambia/allAfrica.com reports.

5 Oct 2010

Opinions: MDGs; Obama's development policy; PEPFAR in Uganda

In a SciDev.Net editorial, David Dickson, director of SciDev.Net, examines progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets, highlighting their usefulness as well as their shortcomings. "The value of the MDGs lies in the way they have acted as both a carrot and a stick to focus the efforts of both development agencies and governments of developing countries," according to Dickson, who writes that "the curse of the MDGs is that they focus on relatively short-term, concrete objectives, and lack sufficient 'buy-in' from the very countries they are intended to help.

5 Oct 2010

NIEHS awards grant to study environmental impact on genetic information

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences has awarded $2.27 million to Indiana University researcher Joseph Shaw for a five-year study of how the environment alters genetic information through mutation and natural selection.

5 Oct 2010

Study demonstrates potential of nontoxic envelope proteins as an alternative to pseudotype lentiviral vectors

Therapeutic lentiviral vectors are emerging as vital tools for molecular medicine as evidenced by the growing number of clinical trials using these vector systems. From a basic research standpoint, lentiviral vectors are very intriguing substrates. On the one hand, the HIV-1 genome offers expanded cloning capacity and the capability to transduce nondividing cells such as hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and neurons.

4 Oct 2010

Benitec announces USPTO's reversal of all previous rejections in '099 Graham patent appeal

Benitec Limited, a leading Australian based company specialising in RNA interference (RNAi) technology is pleased to announce the United States Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO) Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences decision ("the Decision") reversing all previous rejections in the US 6,573,099 (the '099 Graham patent) appeal.

4 Oct 2010

NIH announces it will share IP rights to some AIDS drugs in UNITAID Patent Pool

The NIH announced Thursday it will share intellectual property rights on some AIDS drugs in a patent pool designed to make treatments more widely available to the poor, Reuters reports.

4 Oct 2010

Research on immune system paves way to combat mother-to-infant HIV transmission

Researchers at Oregon Health &Science University may have uncovered a new weapon for combating HIV as it is passed from mother to newborn child. The research, which was led by researchers at OHSU's Oregon National Primate Research Center, will be published in the October 3rd online edition of the journal Nature Medicine.

4 Oct 2010

Media outlets look ahead to next week's Global Fund replenishment meeting

Ahead of next week's replenishment meeting of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in New York, IRIN/PlusNews examines the challenges associated with trying to ramp up programs worldwide to meet global health targets.

4 Oct 2010

UTHealth receives funds for teen pregnancy prevention program

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded $15 million of its $155-million total package to a team led by Susan Tortolero, Ph.D., director of the UTHealth Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research.

3 Oct 2010

GSA urges treatment of sepsis as a medical emergency

The Global Sepsis Alliance (GSA) is urging healthcare providers, patients and policymakers worldwide to treat sepsis as a medical emergency. "Tens of millions of people die from sepsis each year, making it the likely leading cause of death worldwide. Sepsis kills regardless of age, ethnicity, location and access to care," said Konrad Reinhart, M.D., Chairman of the GSA and director of the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, University Hospital of the Friedrich Schiller, University of Jena, Germany.

1 Oct 2010

Herpevac Trial for Women finds experimental vaccine ineffective in prevention of genital herpes disease

An experimental vaccine intended to prevent genital herpes disease in women, although generally safe and well-tolerated, proved ineffective when tested in the recently concluded clinical study known as the Herpevac Trial for Women.

1 Oct 2010

GHI won't compromise PEPFAR, Global AIDS Coordinator says at House Foreign Affairs' Committee hearing

During a House Committee on Foreign Affairs' hearing on the future of PEPFAR Wednesday, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby assured lawmakers that the decision by President Barack Obama to make PEPFAR part of the president's Global Health Initiative (GHI) would not compromise "the widely praised plan," CQ HealthBeat reports.

1 Oct 2010

Antiretroviral therapy does not reduce risk of HIV transmission

For married couples in which one partner is HIV-positive and the other is HIV-negative, antiretroviral therapy (ART) does not reduce the risk of transmitting HIV to the uninfected partner, according to a study from China in the October issue of JAIDS: Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

1 Oct 2010

HIV/AIDS researchers, government officials track progress, forecast challenges for HIV vaccine development

More than 1,000 researchers, government officials and advocates are gathering in Atlanta this week to discuss the progress and future challenges in the development of a vaccine that protects against HIV, FierceVaccines reports (Carroll, 9/29). The AIDS Vaccine 2010 meeting, which kicked off Tuesday, will run through Friday, according to the website for the meeting (undated).

1 Oct 2010

NIH grants for UNC investigators to study HIV/AIDS prevention methods

Investigators at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill comprise one of 12 scientific teams in more than a dozen states that will receive National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants to study effective ways to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS among people in the criminal justice system.

30 Sep 2010

Prix Galien USA committee honors life saving innovations

The Prix Galien USA committee honored innovations that are saving lives last night during the Prix Galien Awards Gala. The Pro Bono Humanum Award, the Prix Galien USA 2010 and the Prix Galien International were presented and related accomplishments celebrated.

30 Sep 2010

UN Secretary announces global strategy for women and children's health at MDG summit

At the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) summit in New York this week, world leaders gathered to review progress on the eight goals agreed in 2000 on alleviating world poverty and ill-health by 2015. As the summit came to a close, governments, businesses and aid organisations made commitments totaling $40bn to reach the goals, with particular emphasis on improving maternal and child health.

30 Sep 2010

Discovery suggest a new direction for designing vaccines for rare HIV infection

New discoveries about the immune defenses of rare HIV patients who produce antibodies that prevent infection suggest a novel direction for designing new vaccines. Researchers at Rockefeller University and colleagues have now made two fundamental discoveries about the so called broadly neutralizing anti-HIV antibodies, which effectively keep the virus at bay.

30 Sep 2010