The Scripps Research Institute on Monday received a $30 million, five-year grant from the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative to develop an HIV vaccine, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.

The grant will finance a team of scientists who will work to develop an HIV/AIDS vaccine that would stimulate the body to produce antibodies to kill the virus, SRI spokesperson Keith McKeown said. The grant also will fund a research center that will be connected to other vaccine research efforts and projects worldwide. The center will be led by SRI researcher Dennis Burton (LaMendola, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 9/30). The center will open in California, and no date has been announced for its opening, according to Reuters Africa (Reuters Africa, 9/30).

The center, called the HIV Neutralizing Antibody Center, will bring together scientists from several disciplines, including biology, virology, chemistry and immunology. "Collaboration is essential to making things happen so the more we bring people together to promote scientific interaction, the more rapid our progress will be toward the creation of an effective AIDS vaccine," Burton said. SRI President Richard Lerner added that SRI is "confident" the center "will facilitate more productive exchanges among researchers and stimulate new ideas that will help to accelerate AIDS vaccine science" (IAVI release, 9/30). "This reinvigorated approach will also make it easier for us t recruit and mentor the young scientists who represent the future of HIV/AIDS vaccine research," Burton said (Reuters Africa, 9/30).