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| Microsoft chairman Bill Gates,
pictured May 2006 (AFP File
Photo) | WASHINGTON, July 19 (Xinhua) -- The Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation on Wednesday announced a 287-million-U.S.-dollar
donation to help 165 researchers in 19 countries collaborate on an AIDS vaccine.
The commitment is the Gates Foundation's single
largest investment in the area of AIDS research.
The funds will be evenly split between groups seeking
to find antibodies that will neutralize HIV, and those researchers trying to
find a way to revive cellular immunity.
Each of the 165 scientists who are getting money from
the program had to agree to share their findings and compare results with
others. Groups receiving funding must submit candidate vaccines for centralized
testing and comparison.
The hope is to more definitively identify the most
effective vaccine approaches and then direct future efforts toward those ideas,
said Dr. Nicholas Hellmann, director of the Gates Foundation's HIV, TB and
reproductive health program.
Some 42 million people around the world are believed
to be infected with HIV and 3 million die each year, with sub-Saharan Africa the
worst affected region. Enditem
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