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Goals | Achievements |
Research Areas | Current Projects | Collaborations
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To stop the spread of the HIV epidemic and contribute to the development of a vaccine.
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Frank Plummer has been the Canada Research Chair in Resistance and Susceptibility to Infections and Distinguished Professor at the University of Manitoba since 2002. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada since 2006 and was recently named an Officer of the Order of Canada. Dr Plummer is currently Scientific Director General of the National Microbiology laboratories, Chief Science Advisor to the Chief Public Health Officer and Director General of the Center for Infectious Diseases Prevention and Control. Dr Plummer has been awarded numerous awards including a Winnipeg Rh Institute Foundation Medal, a Manitoba Medical Association Scholastic Award, the St. Boniface Hospital and Research Foundation’s 2005 International Award on HIV/AIDS in Africa and the Sanofi-Pasteur Special Recognition Award for Achievements in HIV Research..
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- Assessing the natural immunity some people may have to the HIV/AIDS virus
- Understanding the mechanisms responsible for providing HIV resistance
- Development of vaccines, behavioural approaches to preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS
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Gates Grand Challenge
Dr. Plummer and colleagues will expand on past research that has identified groups
of commercial sex workers in Kenya who do not become infected with HIV despite repeated sex without condoms.
While the phenomenon is well documented, it is not well understood. The project will undertake a comprehensive
analysis of these women’s immune systems and genetics. Understanding what makes them apparently immune to the virus
could guide HIV vaccine and drug development.
Read More
Research Plan
Comprehensive Studies of Mechanisms of HIV Resistance in Highly Exposed Uninfected Women |
Ends: |
July 2010
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Highlights |
- phenotype/specificity of CD4 and CD8
- frequency/specificity/neut/tracytose IgA and IgG
- innate studies
- genome wide SNP in SW and Kindred
- HLA/IRF-1/Other polymorphisms
- gene expression analysis
- mass spectrometry in serum or mucosa
- Flumist vaccine challenge
- correlate responses prospectively
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Download Summary
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Links
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Back to Current Projects
NIH
With more than 42 million people living with AIDS in the world today and an estimated 27 million people dead of AIDS,
the development of HIV-1 vaccines is an ever more urgent goal. Most vaccines for infectious diseases of humans have been
developed from an understanding, however imperfect, of what constitutes natural immunity.
There is mounting evidence that some individuals are protected against HIV-1 infection.
Read More
Ends: |
July 2009
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- IgA HIV-R and changes w concurrent GTI
- to produce new scFv vs gp120
- mucosal CTL
- mucosal T helper
- mass spectrometry proteomics
- correlate responses prospectively
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Download Summary
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Back to Current Projects
CDC-Presidential Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
Ends: |
August
2010
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Highlights |
- Antiretroviral therapy delivery in research cohorts in Nairobi, Kenya
- Anti-retroviral drugs
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CIHR
Project 1: A model of effective CD4+ T cell memory (ends:
March 2008)
Project 2: Molecular
mechanisms of a CD4 gene polymorphism associated with HIV disease
progression (ends: August 2009)
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Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (CANFAR)
Project: Molecular Mechanisms of a CD4 Gene Polymorphism
Associated with HIV Disease Progression
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Ends: |
July
2008
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Highlights |
- CD4 gene polymorphism
- HIV disease progression
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MRSI has been collaborating with institutions based at Oxford University, the University of Ghent and Université de Montréal. The Kenya program has given birth to collaborations in India, where Manitoba scientists are applying their hard-won expertise in projects financed by the Canadian International Development Agency and the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation.
For more information check out the collaborators page and the publications page
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