EMORY NEWS CENTER TRIAL

The trial will also assess the ability of a boosting immunogen to induce further maturation of B cells, which would be a key step towards developing a vaccine regimen for HIV. IAVI G002 will build upon these findings by testing the immune response prompted by mRNA delivery of the immunogen. A previous clinical trial, IAVI G001, showed that an adjuvanted protein-based version of the priming immunogen eOD-GT8 60mer induced the desired B-cell response in 97% of recipients. The immunogens being tested were originally developed as proteins by a scientific team at IAVI and Scripps Research. Scripps Research and IAVI developed the vaccine candidates with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery (CHAVI-ID) at NIAID at the NIH and Moderna. The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Fred Hutch) in Seattle, and the University of Texas–Health Science Center at San Antonio are also sites for IAVI G002. Researchers will determine whether HIV immunogens delivered through Moderna’s mRNA technology can induce specific B-cell responses that have the potential to lead to broadly neutralizing antibody development, which is a primary goal of HIV vaccination. The Hope Clinic of Emory Vaccine Center, one of four IAVI G002 sites across the country, is currently recruiting trial participants. Biotechnology company Moderna manufactured the vaccine candidate. The trial, IAVI G002, was launched earlier this year by IAVI, a nonprofit scientific research organization.

Emory University is participating in a Phase I clinical trial to evaluate the use of messenger RNA (mRNA) technology in HIV vaccines for the first time in humans.

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