IAVI Applauds Landmark Study Mapping Evolution of bNAb Against HIV

IAVI, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, congratulates the researchers behind a landmark study mapping the evolution of a broadly neutralizing antibody (bNAb) against HIV. The study — by scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health; Columbia University; the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA); and South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases, and published in Nature — traces the interplay between HIV and the antibody that led to maturation to its final, highly potent form.

“This study provides important clues to vaccine design,” said Wayne C. Koff, IAVI Chief Scientific Officer. “bNAbs bind to the ‘vulnerable, conserved’ sites on the human immunodeficiency virus. Knowing how they evolve naturally gives us all greater potential for developing a vaccine that can do the same thing.”