Stanford Report, May 24, 2006

Talk today on effort to find AIDS vaccine

Investigative reporter Jon Cohen will address the problem, paradox and prognosis of AIDS vaccine development today in room M112 in the Alway Building from 2-4 pm.

When the cause of AIDS was identified in 1984 as a virus, the immediate hope was that a vaccine could be quickly developed to halt its spread. Despite great strides made in immunology, genetics and biotechnology since then, the race to create a vaccine against HIV has been a halting and tedious process.

In his 15 years of writing about vaccines, Cohen has documented the lack of coordination and obstacles that have hindered the effort to create a preventive or curative treatment for the devastating disease, now in its 25th year of epidemic status.

Cohen works for Science magazine and authored Shots in the Dark: The wayward search for an AIDS vaccine. Today's seminar, "Developing an AIDS Vaccine," is hosted by AIDS researcher David Katzenstein, MD, professor of infectious diseases and geographic medicine.