Reassessing Where We Stand With an HIV Vaccine

Preventing HIV/AIDS

According to a recent United Nations study, HIV infection rates among high-risk groups such as gays, drug users and sex workers are on the rise around the world. Contrary to what many perceive, HIV is not going away. These increases in HIV rates nationally and globally demand a renewed focus on how the international community can battle this pandemic. Dr. Harriet Robinson, developer of GeoVax Labs HIV-1 AIDS vaccine technology joins the show to discuss why now is a better time than ever to begin reassessing the importance not only of a preventative vaccine to address the high-risk population, but also of a therapeutic vaccine to keep those with active HIV from progressing to full-blown AIDS.

Dr. Robinson is the developer of GeoVax' HIV-1 AIDS vaccine technology. One of the world's leaders in AIDS vaccine research, she currently serves as Chief Scientific Officer for GeoVax. Previously, she was Chief of the Division of Microbiology and Immunology at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Emory University.

Dr. Robinson has published extensively on HIV-AIDS vaccine research as well as viral-induced cancers. Her pioneering studies on the development of DNA vaccines demonstrated not only that DNA could raise protective immunity for viral infections, but also identified methods of DNA delivery that could be used to control the type of immune responses raised by DNA vaccines.

Her early work with HIV vaccines demonstrated that DNA alone would not be sufficient to raise protective immunity for HIV. She then combined DNA with protein boosters or live viral-vectored boosters to show that the most effective control was through a combination of DNA prime and viral-vectored boosters. Her most recent work has developed single mutiprotein expressing DNA, and working with the NIAID-NIH, a single poxvirus vector (MVA) has been developed to be used for priming and boosting. It is these vaccines that GeoVax has licensed for commercial development.

Dr. Robinson has published extensively on HIV-AIDS vaccine research with more than 130 referred scientific journal publications, 45 monograph reviews and 6 book chapters authored. She has consulted for the US National Insitutes of Health, the US Food and Drug Administration, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the World Health Organization.

Dr. Robinson received her B.A. from Swarthmore College and took her PhD in Microbiology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has been elected to the American Academy of Microbiology.

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