The Immunity Project is Raising Funds for a Free HIV Vaccine
Laura McQuarrie — January 29, 2014 — Social Good
References: pledge.immunityproject.org & fastcompany
The Immunity Project is a not-for-profit initiative, which aims to make its synthetic HIV vaccine free. The project comes from a group of scientists from Harvard, MIT and Stanford, plus entrepreneurs based around the San Fransisco Bay Area.
The Immunity Project focused its research on “HIV controllers,” who are people born with a natural immunity to HIV. The immune systems of HIV controllers target the weakest points of a HIV-infected cell and with machine-learning technology, The Immunity Project developed a vaccine to detect and attack these points, mimicking the body’s ability to naturally do so.
The prototype HIV vaccine has gone through preliminary testing and its crowdfunding campaign will support The Immunity Project’s final experiment before it goes to Phase I human clinical trials approved by the FDA.
The Immunity Project hopes to crowdfund $482,000 over the course of 30 days. The campaign is just a few days in and so far, the support has been overwhelming — with 25 days still to go, it’s raised almost half of its total goal already.
Contact Information
The Immunity Project Website
The Immunity Project Twitter
The Immunity Project Facebook
The Immunity Project focused its research on “HIV controllers,” who are people born with a natural immunity to HIV. The immune systems of HIV controllers target the weakest points of a HIV-infected cell and with machine-learning technology, The Immunity Project developed a vaccine to detect and attack these points, mimicking the body’s ability to naturally do so.
The prototype HIV vaccine has gone through preliminary testing and its crowdfunding campaign will support The Immunity Project’s final experiment before it goes to Phase I human clinical trials approved by the FDA.
The Immunity Project hopes to crowdfund $482,000 over the course of 30 days. The campaign is just a few days in and so far, the support has been overwhelming — with 25 days still to go, it’s raised almost half of its total goal already.
Contact Information
The Immunity Project Website
The Immunity Project Twitter
The Immunity Project Facebook
Trend Themes
1. Crowdfunded Virus Vaccines - Disruptive innovation opportunity: Crowdfunding platforms can be utilized to raise funds and support research and development of virus vaccines.
2. Synthetic HIV Vaccine - Disruptive innovation opportunity: Advancements in synthetic vaccine development can pave the way for more effective and accessible HIV vaccines.
3. Machine-learning Technology in Vaccine Development - Disruptive innovation opportunity: Integration of machine-learning technology in vaccine research can enhance the identification and targeting of specific virus characteristics.
Industry Implications
1. Biotechnology - Disruptive innovation opportunity: Biotechnology companies can leverage innovative research like the synthetic HIV vaccine to explore new avenues for virus therapeutics.
2. Pharmaceuticals - Disruptive innovation opportunity: Pharmaceutical companies can collaborate with researchers to utilize machine-learning technology for more efficient vaccine development processes.
3. Crowdfunding - Disruptive innovation opportunity: Crowdfunding platforms can expand their reach by supporting not-for-profit initiatives like The Immunity Project to drive advancements in virus vaccine development.
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