A state-of-the-art medical laboratory aimed at finding a universal cure to the HI virus opened in South Africa last week. The centre will preserve infected cells for decades to give researchers time to study strains of the virus as it mutates.
The Collaboration for Aids Vaccine Discovery (CAVD) laboratory is based at the University of Stellenbosch's Virology Department in Cape Town. It forms part of an international network of 13 Vaccine Discovery Consortia and five Central Service Facilities applying new technologies, concepts and approaches to the design of safe and effective preventive vaccines against HIV/AIDS, reports AfricaNews.
Head of the local project Corena de Beer said: "We will collect infected blood samples, take out the T-cells which contain the virus, freeze and send them to a repository in Germany."
She added that members of the consortium had different roles varying from finding a vaccine for the disease to collecting blood specimens. She further said that they have partners in the University of Washington, the University of Lund in Sweden, Italy and Geneva.
"The guys who are looking at making vaccines for instance in America, will have access to strains that are being transmitted in South Africa at the moment [since] we will collect and preserve them," she added.
De Beer said it was important to keep samples as the virus mutated rapidly.
The collaborative effort was established in July 2006 and is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. CAVD now includes 18 grants totalling $327 million over five years, with additional co-funding provided by the Fraunhofer Society and the Ministry of Economic Affairs of Saarland in Germany, and the Swiss State Secretariat of Education and Research.
Source: AfricaNews
