Dr. V.D. Ramanathan, Senior Deputy Director at TRC, Chennai and the Principal Investigator of the Phase I AIDS vaccine trial conducted at TRC

The search for AIDS vaccine contiunes 25 years after the discovery of HIV by Luc Montagnier.   Though he has been awarded the prestigious prize that any scientists can ever aspire for, the search for a vaccine continues.  Many trials are still in the very early stages, while some have gone on to human clinical trial stage.

The Phase I trial of an AIDS vaccine tested at the Tuberculosis Research Centre (TRC), Chennai using the MVA vector has been found to be safe.  The immune response has been only modest.  Phase  I trial is done to see how safe the vaccine is and to see how well  the volunteers who have received the vaccine produce an immune response. 

All volunteers who received the high dose showed good response.  But this did not last long.  So NACO and IAVI (International AIDS Vaccine Initiative) have planned to conduct a Phase I AIDS trial using a prime-boost strategy.  It will be done at TRC, Chennai and at NARI, Pune.

The trial will start next year.

You can hear the audio podcast of Dr. D.V. Ramanathan, the Principal Investigator of the Phase I AIDS vaccine trial that I uploaded in the boomp3.com site.  Or you can see the  video podcast in Youtube.