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Research Labs: David Ho, M.D.
Our laboratory works to improve the design and delivery of HIV vaccines to improve the body’s immune response to these vaccines. One strategy involves designing vaccines to “target” dendritic cells, a specialized immune cell in the body that coordinates many aspects of the immune response. Studies have shown that vaccines targeting dendritic cells elicit a longer and stronger immune response. This work is being sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery, and is being conducted with a consortium of scientists, including Dr. Ralph Steinman at the Rockefeller University, who discovered the dendritic cell in 1973. Another strategy involves delivering HIV vaccines in different ways to ensure that more vaccine gets into our cells to generate an immune response. This work is being conducted both in the laboratory and in clinical trials at the Rockefeller University, to ensure that discoveries in the laboratory move as quickly as possible into potential vaccines in humans.
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