The CAVD Structure
The CAVD includes eighteen Vaccine Discovery/Development Consortia (VDCs), five Central Service Facilities (CSFs), and three Grand Challenges in Global Health (GCGH) grantees.
Vaccine Discovery Consortia
The vaccine discovery consortia are exploring a range of innovative approaches for designing vaccine candidates to trigger immune responses believed to be critical for protection against HIV.
The consortia focus on the two biggest scientific obstacles currently facing the field: designing vaccine candidates capable of eliciting broadly neutralizing and other protective antibodies that prevent HIV infection, and improving vaccine candidates so they elicit stronger and more durable protective cellular immune responses.
Central Service Facilities
Five consortia provide centralized services and expertise to the vaccine discovery consortia, enabling investigators to openly share data and materials and compare results using standardized assays. The centralized service facilities include three laboratory networks for evaluating the immune responses elicited by vaccine candidates (T-cell, antibody, and mouse immunology laboratories), a research specimen repository, and a data and statistical management center.
In addition to these services, investigators in the central service facilities engage in research to improve upon current methods of vaccine evaluation, specimen storage, and data analysis.
In total, the CAVD involves more than 500 investigators across 103 institutions in 20 countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Uganda, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Zambia.
The CAVD is an important contribution of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s to achieving the goals of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, an alliance of researchers, funders and advocates dedicated to implementing a shared scientific plan to accelerate HIV vaccine development.
See History of the CAVD Effort…