30 August 2013 | News | By BioSpectrum Bureau
Singapore: Dr Warner Greene, Dr Richard Sutton and Dr Timothy Cardozo are going to be awarded the 2013 Avant-Garde Award for HIV/AIDS Research from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which is a part of the National Institutes of Health. The three scientists, will each receive $500,000 per year for five years to support their research.
While Dr Greene, from the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, US, is attempting to suppress the virus, they are investigating a way to modify how an animal model responds to the virus; Dr. Sutton, who works with the Yale University, US, is trying to identify rare genetic mutations that account for why a small percentage of HIV-infected individuals do not suffer any ill effects or need to take antiretroviral medications. Dr Cardozo of the New York University Langone Medical Center, US, is looking to test a combined anti-cocaine/HIV vaccine in animal models.
NIDA's annual Avant-Garde award competition, which is now in its sixth year, is intended to stimulate high-impact research that may lead to groundbreaking opportunities for the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS in drug users.
Ms Nora D Volkow, director, NIDA, said that, "What's especially exciting about this year's award recipients is that these interventions can have a significant impact on reducing HIV infection world-wide. We expect that this innovative research will provide new leads in the fight against HIV/AIDS, especially for those populations that have been historically hard to reach with current therapies."