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Duke Doctors Discover Pathway To Possible HIV Vaccine

HIV microscope image, virus, disease
Duke University

Duke University researchers are several steps closer to developing a vaccine to help the body fight HIV. 

A team of doctors was able to find and track down rare  individuals whose immune systems can produce enough antibodies to combat the virus that causes AIDS. 

Lead researcher Barton Haynes is Director of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute.  He says new technology that can track the immune response in individuals showed them the path to what could be an effective medication.

"So now that we've found the road map, we take the critical pieces of the envelope that have changed over time and make them synthetically in the test tube," Haynes explained.

"Then that becomes our sequential series of immunizations for our experimental vaccine that we're testing now in non-human primates and then eventually into humans."

Haynes says he's among the doctors who have been working on this project for 28 years and a viable vaccine is still several years away.  The first HIV cases were diagnosed 30 years ago.

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Gurnal Scott joined North Carolina Public Radio in March 2012 after several stops in radio and television. After graduating from the College of Charleston in his South Carolina hometown, he began his career in radio there. He started as a sports reporter at News/Talk Radio WTMA and won five Sportscaster of the Year awards. In 1997, Gurnal moved on to television as general assignment reporter and weekend anchor for WCSC-TV in Charleston. He anchored the market's top-rated weekend newscasts until leaving Charleston for Memphis, TN in 2002. Gurnal worked at WPTY-TV for two years before returning to his roots in radio. He joined the staff of Memphis' NewsRadio 600 WREC in 2004 eventually rising to News Director. In 2006, Raleigh news radio station WPTF came calling and he became the station's chief correspondent. Gurnal’s reporting has been honored by the South Carolina Broadcasters Association, the North Carolina Associated Press, and the Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas.
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