The slow pace of AIDS research can be pinned, in no small part, on something akin to the square-peg-round-hole conundrum. The HIV-1 virus won? replicate in monkey cells, so researchers use a monkey virus ?known as SIVmac, or the macaque version of simian immunodeficiency virus ?to test potential therapies and vaccines in animals. But therapies and vaccines that are effective on SIV don? necessarily translate into human success. Now, using a combination of genetic engineering and forced adaptation, researchers at Rockefeller and the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center have created a version of the AIDS virus that replicates vigorously in both human and monkey cells ?an advance that has the potential to revolutionize vaccine research. >>> Discuss This Story
