$15M allocated to AIDS vaccine research

Baltimore -- A U.S. scientist who co-discovered the virus that causes AIDS will use a $15 million grant to develop a potential vaccine.

Dr. Robert Gallo of the University of Maryland said at a news conference that he will use the five-year grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to test a vaccine that could potentially eliminate the virus in already infected cells, The Washington Times said Wednesday.

The vaccine has been tested successfully on monkeys.

The grant is part of the Gates Foundation's Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery, which started last year with $287 million in grants.

Gallo has a public-private partnership with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Profectus BioSciences, a spinoff of the university's Institute of Human Virology, the newspaper said.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International.