Allergy | Causes, diagnosis, treatment

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, also known as NIAID, will give a $390,000 grant to EpiVax, for optimizing delivery of an HIV vaccine. The announcement was made today by EpiVax, a company involved in computational immunology, vaccine design, and immunogenicity, with a long-established expertise in the above mentioned fields of research.

While I find this initiative great, I wonder about the difficulties raised by HIV, allergy and immunology. There are so many diseases which we cannot yet cure, nor prevent, that it is desirable that more research companies focus their efforts into developing the immune system and make it resist foreign invaders such as viruses and bacteria, or allergens.

I know that EpiVax has been previously involved in deimmunization with monoclonal antibodies and that they actively research and develop vaccines against viruses and bacteria such as Helycobacter Pylori, influenza or smallpox. I’m looking forward to see the results of the studies they are going to undertake thanks to this NIAID grant.

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