Vaccine development is a notoriously challenging career path, given the propensity for negative results. For every 100 potential immunogens made, very few will work. Young scientists often choose research areas more likely to offer career advancement. Hoping in part to address these shortcomings, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), a global non-profit organization, is investing $30 million to create a new HIV Neutralizing Antibody Center at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.

“One of the major challenges in the HIV world is bringing young investigators into the field and maintaining their career path,” says Wayne Koff, IAVI's senior vice-president of research and development. “We want to train the next generation of HIV vaccine discovery scientists.” The organization is seeking young scientists willing to commit to a multi-year programme. It intends to combine expertise — at the graduate student, postdoc and scientist level — in immunology, molecular biology, protein chemistry, molecular virology, computational biology and drug discovery.

“The recent failure of the Merck HIV vaccine highlighted the need to think about antibodies as well the T-cell component in HIV vaccine development,” says Scripps immunologist Dennis Burton, who is scientific director of the HIV Neutralizing Antibody Consortium (NAC), a collaboration between the IAVI and leading AIDS laboratories in the United States and Europe.

The centre plans to promote a multidisciplinary approach and dedicate time to mentoring. Graduate students will be afforded the chance to develop soft skills, such as grant-writing and giving presentations at international meetings, at a much earlier stage than is usual in academic settings. Young scientists will have instant connections to the top HIV labs around the world through the NAC.

Initially the centre will have 30 people, says Koff, including some senior international scientists within the consortium. The IAVI hopes to have the centre under way by the beginning of 2009. “This is the highest vaccine-discovery priority at the IAVI,” says Koff. He says Scripps would like to identify an immunogen consisting of broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV and be on its way to clinical development of that immunogen within five years.