Scripps Research Institute Receives $4.5 Million for HIV Project

The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in La Jolla, Calif., has announced two grants totaling more than $4.5 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help develop a vaccine against HIV/AIDS.

The grants, awarded through the foundation's Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery program, will fund new tools in TSRI's High Resolution Electron Microscopy Facility in a five-year effort to collect and process high-resolution images of HIV proteins interacting with antibodies, giving scientists a picture of which immunogens are most effective and why. The funds also will enable TSRI to provide the processing power necessary to handle this unprecedented amount of data. Last year, the Gates Foundation awarded a grant that enabled TSRI to acquire a powerful new Titan Krios cryo-electron microscope.