NIH Record - National Institutes of Health

Annual Hill Lecture Features Virologist Corey on Progress Toward HIV Vaccine

Dr. Lawrence Corey
Dr. Lawrence Corey

Virologist and vaccine expert Dr. Lawrence Corey will deliver the 2017 James C. Hill Memorial Lecture on Tuesday, Mar. 14 at 3 p.m. in Lipsett Amphitheater, Bldg. 10. His talk, titled “Getting to an Effective HIV Vaccine: Perspectives on Progress,” will review the state of HIV vaccine development and describe current strategies to advance the field. 

Since 1999, Corey has served as principal investigator of the NIAID-supported HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), which is dedicated to accelerating development of a safe and effective preventive HIV vaccine. The HVTN has built an international scientific collaboration of investigators in 12 countries on 5 continents.

Corey will discuss recent advances in identifying and manufacturing broadly neutralizing antibodies that target multiple, diverse HIV strains. Researchers are testing whether and to what extent infusions of these antibodies can protect people from HIV infection to help inform the design of novel vaccine candidates.

He also will explain how HIV vaccinology is at an important crossroads in defining whether protective non-neutralizing antibodies can be elicited with a vaccine. He will describe ongoing clinical trials in humans that aim to build on vaccine regimens that have achieved protection in animal models, as well as regimens that aim to build on insights gleaned from a clinical trial conducted in Thailand that is the only human study to have demonstrated some efficacy for an HIV vaccine candidate. 

Corey is past president and director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and professor of medicine and laboratory medicine at the University of Washington. His laboratory has made major contributions to research on herpes viruses, HIV and viral-associated cancers. 

The Hill lecture series is dedicated to the memory of former NIAID deputy director Dr. James C. Hill, who played a critical role in shaping NIAID’s HIV/AIDS research agenda during the early years of the epidemic.  

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Staff Writer: Amber Snyder
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