VACCINE RESEARCH

During the past few years, experimental AIDS vaccines developed by David Ho, M.D., and his colleagues at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center began their first clinical trials at the Hospital. Several more trials are planned.

In 2005, an international scientific team led by Rockefeller immunologist Ralph Steinman, M.D., was selected to participate in the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative, launched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Steinman consortium is working on novel vaccine approaches against HIV and other infectious diseases.

Sarah Schlesinger, M.D., a Rockefeller research associate professor, is project manager and a key member of the vaccine design teams in both the Ho and Steinman labs. She has carried out the initial phase I studies at the Hospital and is now serving as project manager for the Gates Foundation Grand Challenges team.

TREATMENT RESEARCH

DirectEffect supports an active ongoing program of HIV treatment studies. Martin Markowitz, M.D., a Rockefeller associate professor of clinical investigation and Aaron Diamond Center Clinical Director, heads a multifaceted research program on HIV. Dr. Markowitz and his colleagues are developing more potent and more "patient friendly" treatment regimens, studying newly developed anti-HIV drugs, and assessing the effectiveness of early intervention with antiretroviral therapies.