New vaccine trial enrolling in New York

The Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center (ADARC) in New York City and University of Rochester Medical Center at Rochester, NY recently began enrolling volunteers for a Phase I vaccine trial. The trial will test the safety and immunogenicity of a vaccine candidate in 48 healthy volunteers.

The vaccine candidate is called ADMVA and is based on a Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) viral vector. This vector is developed from a virus that is similar to the virus used for the smallpox vaccine.

This vaccine candidate was developed at ADARC and contains genes from clade C HIV, which is prevalent in China, India, and sub-Saharan Africa. "We're particularly excited about this. The epidemic in China is burgeoning and really the only hope for some people is a vaccine," says Sarah Schlesinger, a Research Associate Professor at ADARC, a partner of IAVI and Rockefeller University.