Research – HIV Transmission in Africa
The goal of this project is to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV through breast feeding in resource poor countries. Breast feeding still accounts for approximately 315,000 cases annually of pediatric AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. Plexis™ “innocualtions” can potentially provide 6 weeks of protection from each injection. A program that incorporates these injections could piggyback onto existing accelerated immunization protocols in Africa. Our collaborators include Dr. John Sullivan and Dr. Michael Neely.
John Sullivan MD is Professor of Pediatrics, and Director of the Office of Research for the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Sullivan's research interests are focused on viral pathogenesis with a strong interest in HIV-1 and herpesvirus pathogenesis. He has had a long-term interest in clinical trials and participated in the discovery and development of the first FDA approved non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, nevirapine. Dr. Sullivan pioneered the use of nevirapine for the prevention of maternal to infant transmission of HIV-1, a treatment now being implemented throughout the developing world. He has established a research collaboration in Durban, South Africa and played a leading role in the design and implementation of a large clinical trial in South Africa that demonstrated the efficacy of nevirapine for the prevention of maternal to child HIV-1 transmission.
Michael Neely MD is Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Disease, the University of Southern California . He is also a member of USC's Laboratory of Applied Pharmacokinetics. He has a unique expertise in clinical pharmacokinetics as applied to the problems of pediatric AIDS.