We will find scientific basis for HIV cure by 2020, scientists say
A new Institute for HIV Cure Research has been launched on World AIDS Day – which aims to develop the scientific basis of a cure for HIV by 2020.
amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, announced today that it has provided $20 million in funding to establish the new Institute, which will be dedicated exclusively to developing ways to beat HIV, once and for all.
It marks a notable shift from the majority of current medical research, which focusses on improving HIV prevention and management strategies.
The Institute will “support teams of scientists working across the research continuum”, through collaborations with the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology (GIVI) and Blood Systems Research Institute, as well as Oregon Health and Science University; University of California, Berkeley; Gilead Sciences; and the Infectious Disease Research Institute in Seattle, Washington.
amfAR Chief Executive Officer Kevin Robert Frost said: “We intend to quicken the pace of cure research by supporting a collaborative community of leading HIV researchers in one cohesive enterprise.
“The institute will allow them to conduct the science, share ideas, and test and evaluate new technologies and potential therapies in a state-of-the-art environment.
“I can think of no better base for such an enterprise than the San Francisco Bay Area, the crucible of technological innovation in America.”
“Furthermore, establishing an institute dedicated to finding a cure for HIV in a city that was once considered ground zero of the AIDS epidemic brings full circle the outstanding work that UCSF’s researchers have been doing over the past 30 years.”
Paul Volberding, Professor of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco, will direct the new amfAR Institute.
He said: “For those of us who watched helplessly as thousands died, the opportunity to try to develop an HIV cure is truly amazing.
“We are proud to have been chosen by amfAR as the only amfAR HIV Cure Institute in the nation. We’re ready to end this epidemic.”
