2005 Scientific Strategic Plan - May 2007 Workshop

The workshop, Humoral Responses to HIV and Approaches to the Design of Antigens that Induce Neutralizing and Other Potentially Protective Antibodies, was held in May 2007 and attended by 25 scientists. Participants agreed on the need for expanded research attention to isolating and characterizing new broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibodies against various HIV clades; to obtain crystal structures of additional envelope molecules; to understand the potential protective role of "non-neutralizing" antibodies; to better characterize the significance of in vitro assays in relation to in vivo protection; and to obtain additional information on relevant B cell immunology. Ultimately, the design of new immunogens either with stabilizing mutations in gp120, scaffolds of conserved neutralization epitopes on other proteins, or other structurally-based approaches (e.g., env-CD4 chimeras or mimics of them) may lead to more promising products. Significantly improving HIV vaccine design is still of the highest priority.

A summary of the workshop is available in Section II of the Enterprise Report of Activities 2005-2007

A report from this workshop was published in PloS Medicine: Antibody-Based HIV-1 Vaccines: Recent Developments and Future Directions.

Working Group Participants

*Workshop Organizing Committee Members