--NEXT-GENERATION VACCINES
The current crop of vaccines is largely designed to train immune system cells known as T-cells to recognize and kill cells already infected with HIV. While these trials progress, scientists are working on even more advanced vaccines that activate powerful antibodies to prevent HIV from infecting cells in the first place. Both would be administered before a person becomes exposed to the virus.
Most modern vaccines use this antibody approach, but HIV's extreme skill at mutating makes it difficult for specifically targeted antibodies to identify and neutralize the virus.
Teams led by Dr. Dennis Burton of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, Dr. Michel Nussenzweig at Rockefeller University in New York, Dr. Gary Nabel of NIAID's Vaccine Research Center, Haynes at Duke and others have focused on rare antibodies made by 10 to 20 percent of people with HIV that can neutralize a broad array of strains.
Researchers think a vaccine that can coax the body into making these antibodies before HIV exposure would offer a powerful foil to many forms of the virus.
Such antibodies seek out and latch on to regions of the virus that are highly "conserved," meaning they are so critical to the virus that they appear in nearly every HIV strain. By attaching to the virus they make it incapable of infecting other cells.
Until 2009, scientists had identified only a few broadly neutralizing antibodies, but in the past few years teams have found dozens.
So far, scientists have isolated the antibodies, identified what part of HIV they target and even know the exact shape they make, Koff said. Researchers are now using this information to design vaccines that prompt the immune system to make them.
"We're not there yet," Nabel said.
NIAID this month said it will spend up to $186 million over the next seven years to fund the Centers for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology & Immunogen Discovery. The new consortium is focused on making vaccines that induce these protective antibodies, with major grants going to Duke and Scripps.
Nabel said no vaccine being tested today "is likely to hit it out of the park," but many researchers do feel advances in broadly neutralizing antibodies are key to developing a highly successful HIV vaccine.
"It's really a new day when we start to think about where we are with AIDS vaccines," Nabel said.
A lot of people believe they have found a cure, but the drug companies make too much money on medication for HIV, that they would lose money if they released a vaccine. Even if they find a cure, I believe we are 10 years away from anyone getting it.
They HAVE had a cure for years. You really should spend time on on Youtube and watch all of the videos and reports. Namely one about a scientist who discovered a 'cure' and began administering it to people in Africa a few years ago.
A lot of people believe they have found a cure, but the drug companies make too much money on medication for HIV, that they would lose money if they released a vaccine. Even if they find a cure, I believe we are 10 years away from anyone getting it.
The current crop of vaccines is largely designed to train immune system cells known as T-cells to recognize and kill cells already infected with HIV. While these trials progress, scientists are working on even more advanced vaccines that activate powerful antibodies to prevent HIV from infecting cells in the first place. Both would be administered before a person becomes exposed to the virus.
Why run before you can walk . Both vaccines (before and after infection) are great tho, obviously
That's not even funny. This is why I'm worried about a vaccine, right when we get one, the culture of sex will mimic the 1960's, careless and wild, especially with gay men. I will ALWAYS be using a condom, even after HIV has been cured.
. Both vaccines (before and after infection) are great tho, obviously 
