Hope for HIV vaccine as researchers resort to computer programe to end the long wait for the vaccine.

 
More than 30 years have passed since the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, and scientists are still struggling to develop a vaccine. But researchers at Vanderbilt University in Nashville have used an unconventional method to get one step closer. Instead of finding an antibody to kill the virus, they simply created one using a computer program.

Four years ago, Josh Robbins was, literally, the poster boy for clinical trials of the HIV vaccine: HVTN 505.

Robbins told Ivanhoe, "I thought I was doing something amazing for the world."

The vaccine was considered a failure. Robbins recorded, and posted on YouTube, the moment he was told he was one of 48 participants who became infected with HIV during the study.

Researchers have now taken a big step forward by finding what amounts to a needle in a haystack.


This computer graphic shows the structure of an antibody, which looks like a ball of string, attached to the HIV protein in green. Using a computer program called "Rosetta", researchers were able to redesign and test it thousands of different ways before finding the one design that made the antibody four times stronger.

Graduate student at Vanderbilt, Jessica Finn, explained, "We could never test a million antibodies in our laboratory, but Rosetta can search through that list of antibodies and pull out candidates."

One reason HIV has been so hard to destroy is because it is always mutating. Director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center, James Crowe, MD, said, "So we redesigned this antibody on the computer so that it would kill more viruses."

Researchers say the redesigned antibody will soon become another weapon in the fight against HIV.

Dr. Crowe says within a year, the redesigned antibody will likely be added to current trials as a drug to help people already infected with HIV.

Because of his earlier experience, Robbins continues to advocate the need for volunteers for HIV vaccine trials.

Margot Kim, Health Watch.

Eloke Onyebuchi: Youth Global Platform on HIV/AIDS: Our campaign st...

Eloke Onyebuchi: Youth Global Platform on HIV/AIDS: Our campaign st...: We have integrated "TasP" into our ‪#‎ ENDHIV‬ campaign as a rationale to sensitize the young people and adolescents recently...

Youth Global Platform on HIV/AIDS: Our campaign strategy to end AIDS epidemic by 2030.

We have integrated "TasP" into our ‪#‎ENDHIV‬ campaign as a rationale to sensitize the young people and adolescents recently infected on the need to undertake treatment immediately after infection and the dangers of treatment interruptions. This will be accompanied with our campaign strategy to promote the encouragement of treatment continuity, adherence, retention in care and early diagnosis as a rationale to end AIDS epidemic by 2030.
Our rationale for "TasP" is because recent study by Swiss investigators have shown that majority (80%) of HIV transmission are connected to patients recently infected with the virus as viral load is higher at the first phase of transmission. Also,given the fact that high proportion of probable cases and those recently infected do not seek for early treatment because they are unaware of the risk of their current status. Hence the need to educate young people and adolescents about "TasP" as a tactical preventive strategy to end AIDS epidemic and meet SDG 3 by 2030.

We will launch this strategy on 1st December 2015 as part of our programme to mark World HIV day.
Please follow us on twitter @YGPOH and here on facebook for more updates.
Thank you.
Eloke Onyebuchi (@Elokeo)
Facilitator/Coordinator
Helen Clark Michel Sidibé @SaldanhaVP Onyibupet Consulting Limited: A health sector consulting) @LenniMontiel MTV Staying Alive @LuizLoures

The English man with no penis that slept with 100 women revealed and may soon get one penis through surgery.

A man born without a penis could soon be receiving one — from his own limb.
Andrew Wardle, 40, of Manchester, England, suffers from a condition called bladder exstrophy, which caused his bladder to develop outside his body, near his groin.
Wardle’s bladder was successfully reinserted when he was a baby, but he spent his whole life without his manhood.
But doctors are now giving him new hope.
“They told me they could build a penis out of my arm,” Wardle told People magazine.
The four-part surgery would graft existing nerves and tissue from his arm, but no timetable was set for the operation.
“I’m taking it one step at a time and not expecting anything,” he said
A new TLC documentary, “The Man With No Penis,” documents Wardle’s life, including how he kept his missing member a secret from friends, family, lovers.
He even managed to fool his long-term girlfriend Fedra Fabian for more than a year.
Wardle became an Internet sensation earlier this year when he declared that, despite lacking a penis, he had still slept with more than 100 women.
“The Man With No Penis” airs Oct. 5 on TLC.

Emily Smith, New York Post.