AIDS: No vaccine after 25 years

Note: Desrosiers is the head of the New England National Primate Research Center

Note: The use of non-human primate models is part of the problem, not part of the solution. Please see post earlier today regarding Jane Goodall on this very subject.


"AIDS: No vaccine after 25 years"

After 25 years and billions of research dollars, the world's scientists have been unable to develop a vaccine that provides immunity against AIDS.

Although there have been successes in developing medications to treat people infected with HIV/AIDS, there's been no progress in creating a vaccine, the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger reported Monday.

"It's seriously questionable whether there will ever be an effective vaccine for HIV," Ronald Desrosiers, an AIDS researcher affiliated with Harvard University, told the newspaper. "It would be the greatest good we could do for mankind, and we should try like hell (but) we are going to need to solve some fundamental science questions to lead us to a vaccine."

It was June 5, 1981, when five gay men were admitted to Los Angeles hospitals with a mysterious illness, the Star-Ledger said, noting it took another year before the disease was given a name: acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS.

HIV/AIDS has since infected approximately 65 million people and killed nearly 25 million.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International "

Mother-infant separation

Last Friday, the 14th of July, I spoke with John Pranger of CRFO radio in British Columbia. We discussed the experiments of the infamous Harry Harlow, and the maternal deprivation studies that continue even today at institutions like Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University. ( I erroneously referred to it as Yerkes University at one point in the interview)

An MP3 version of the interview can be found on the show's website, along with those for other dates and many other interesting topics. My interview begins at time marker 20:39.

Life is full of surprises (and dead rats)

The Future is Unwritten. In the Pipeline:

"I had a project once where adding a single methyl group to the a molecule changed it from being an infallible overnight rodent-killer to something that could be given for two weeks straight at ten times the normal dose. Clearly we managed to slip out of whatever protein target it was dealing death, but these things can't be modeled or predicted."

And the fun doesn't start or stop there. First you have the surprises of mice and maybe dogs.

And after the rats you might get something really jaw-droppingly unexpected, like say dead monkeys. That's something that will really make you slap your forehead or stroke your chin in confusion.

Then, after all of that is said and done...you can get the really unexpected "eureka" of something like a TGN1412. Sometimes you have to wait a while...for something like a Vioxx.

The *real* monkey maven speaks out about mangabeys, conservation and the future

Thank you, Jane.


The Chimp's Champion - New York Times

Baboon fist shaking

Like people don't have hand gestures that carry a general message? OK? Flipping someone the middle finger?

Is this really a "discovery?" Seems pretty obvious to me.

Discovery Channel :: News - Animals :: Study: Baboons Talk With Hands