Rick King, VP at IAVI, to Present on HIV Vaccine Design at GTC’s Vaccines Conf., July 8-10, Boston

Boston, MA, May 23, 2013 --(PR.com)-- Rick King, Vice President of Vaccine Design at the International Aids Vaccine Initiative, will present on “New Approaches to HIV Vaccine Design” at GTC’s 11th Vaccines Research & Development: All Things Considered Conference on July 8–10, 2013 in Boston, MA.

Generation of a broadly effective HIV vaccine will require a solution to the problem of HIV diversity. Recent results of the RV144 trial suggest that a vaccine is possible and that the elicitation of antibody responses may be critical for activity. Unfortunately, the generation of broadly neutralizing antibodies by vaccination has so far proved unsuccessful. New approaches are emerging that may overcome this hurdle. These include developing highly specific immunogens that mimic the antigenic determinants recognized by broadly neutralizing antibodies found in infected people. Another is to deliver mimics of the native functional Envelope spike that is the target of all broadly neutralizing antibodies identified so far. Developing vaccines to deliver native Envelope spikes has proved to be challenging and the immunogens tested to date do not assume a fully native conformation. Dr. King’s presentation will highlight how IAVI has generated replication competent virus vectors that express Envelope in a native configuration in transduced cells and on the virus particle surface. These new immunogens are currently being tested in animal systems. Benefits of this talk include:

• Introduction to the requirements of a broadly effective HIV Vaccine.
• Use of new technologies to define the targets of broadly neutralizing antibodies.
• Use of new technologies to display immunogens.
• New ways to analyze immunogenicity results.

Rick King is the Vice President of Vaccine Design, overseeing a comprehensive AIDS vaccine discovery program that includes an AIDS Vaccine Design & Development Laboratory in Brooklyn, the Neutralizing Antibody Center at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California and a New Translational Research laboratory in Delhi India. Rick has been the author and recipient of many peer reviewed grants, is an inventor on 12 issued patents, and has published more than 90 peer-reviewed publications.

The 11th Vaccines Research & Development: All Things Considered Conference continues a tradition of presenting valuable updates and exposure to all aspects of vaccine development, including research, product design considerations / specifications, manufacturing, regulations, investment, and policy, in a comfortable, interactive and friendly setting. It brings together the leaders in vaccinology from industry, academia, and the government for practical discussions on the future of the discipline.

This conference is part of the Infectious Diseases World Summit 2013 and will be held concurrently with two other tracks which are:

2nd Influenza Research and Development
10th Anti-Infectives Partnering and Deal-Making

For more information, please visit www.gtcbio.com/vaccines