The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has announced grants totalling 287 million dollars to create an international network of research teams in an effort to speed up the development of a vaccine for HIV. This report from Matt McGrath:

Listen to the story

Now the Gates Foundation hopes that its funding will help co-ordinate large scale collaborative projects that can crack the major scientific problems. They will bring together 165 researchers from 19 countries to pursue a range of innovative strategies. Among the projects that will be funded is research that will isolate a large number of antibodies from humans and animals, including llamas, to see if they can neutralise HIV. They will also fund a project that will try to use viruses related to smallpox as potential vaccines.

The foundation says that they are also developing global access plans to ensure that any discoveries from the research will be accessible and affordable in developing countries. Almost 700 million dollars is spent annually on developing an HIV vaccine, but researchers say this is only half of what needs to be spent to reach that goal.

Matt McGrath, BBC, Science Reporter

Listen to the words

struggled to develop
found it very difficult to make

human clinical trials
tests done with people who are closely examined after taking possible new medicines

to mutate
to change

to ward off infections
to prevent the harmful virus from doing damage

large scale collaborative projects
big projects with lots of people working together from different organisations

crack
find the answer to

innovative strategies
new and imaginative techniques

isolate
identify, find and use

smallpox
a dangerous disease

to reach that goal
to be successful in finding a vaccine

Read more about this story