Annual Merigan Lecture addresses challenges of developing an AIDS vaccine

In the ninth annual Thomas C. Merigan, Jr Lecture, one-time Stanford researcher Harriet L. Robinson, PhD, covered the many hurdles faced by researchers trying to foil the evasive HIV virus that causes AIDS. Robinson, who is now the Asa Griggs Candler Professor at the Yerkes Primate Research Center of Emory University in Atlanta, is spearheading one attempt to create an HIV vaccine.

Thomas Merrigan, MD, the George E. and Lucy Becker Professor of Medicine, knew Robinson when she was beginning her career at Stanford. "I remember her most for her enthusiasm for science and for her work during the decade when she was here," Merrigan said in his introduction.

HIV has not proved easy to vaccinate against. Not only does the virus mutate quickly, making itself quickly invisible to the body’s immune defenses, but it comes in subtypes, each of which requires its own vaccine, Robinson explained. With these obstacles, researchers must develop an effective method of delivering the vaccine in addition to the vaccine itself, in order to address the various HIV types.

Robinson’s group has developed an immunization approach that effectively prevented HIV infection in monkeys. Their vaccine combines aspects of the three most common subtypes of HIV, providing immunity against all three.

In addition to an effective vaccine, their approach relies on eight-week intervals between shots, which is useful in developing countries.

"Working in eight weeks, you can tell people to come back in two moons for their next vaccination," Robinson said. Robinson hopes to be testing her vaccine in humans by 2006.