Scientists Turn to Crowdfunding to Develop Free HIV Vaccine

Researchers have now turned to crowdfunding to develop a vaccine for HIV that can give affected individuals the ability to prevent the growth of the disease, according to several media sources.

And, they plan to give it away for free.

One of the major reasons why scientists haven't found a cure for AIDS is that the Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV) mutates constantly. During unfavorable conditions, the virus hides in clusters in the body and stays dormant for a very long time. This ability to stay hidden helps the virus evade anti-retro viral drug therapy.

However, there are few people known as elite controllers in whom the virus remains dormant permanently, according to CNET.com.

Now, a nonprofit organization called Immunity Project is trying to develop an AIDS vaccine that can be inhaled. According to the team, the vaccine will help keep the HIV in dormant state.

These "long-term nonprogressors" make up about 5 to 15 percent of HIV-infected individuals. Many researchers claim that this elite set of people might hold the key to defeat the virus.

"The essence of controllers' immunity is the unique targeting capability contained within their immune systems," the team wrote on their website. "Like the finely tuned laser scope on a sniper rifle, the immune systems of controllers have the ability to target the biological markers on the HIV virus that are its achilles heel. When a controller's immune system attacks these biological markers it forces the virus into a dormant state. Non controllers have sniper rifles, but they are missing this critical targeting ability."

To create this vaccine, Immunity Project is looking at crowdfunding and machine learning. "We're actually using computers to find this magic bullet," said Dr. Reid Rubsamen, who directs the undertaking and runs Flow Pharma Inc., a medical device company in East Palo Alto, according to bizjournals.com.

Stanford, Harvard, and MIT scientists and entrepreneurs based in the San Francisco Bay Area are working on this project and they hope to begin Phase 1 clinical trials with the U.S Food and Drug Administration. The team needs $482,000 to fund the final experiment before they begin clinical trials with FDA.

Y Combinator- a technology accelerator- has given $20,000 to Immunity Project, according to WSJ.