Jacobs receives humanitarian award for HIV/AIDS research

Biodesign Institute researcher Bertram Jacobs, PhD, will receive a humanitarian award from the Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS at the 14th Annual “The Apothecary Shops” Night for Life Gala on May 9. The award will recognize his commitment to developing an HIV/AIDS vaccine.

Jacobs, a virologist who is also a professor in ASU’s School of Life Sciences, is one of the world’s foremost experts on a poxvirus called vaccinia, a cousin of the smallpox virus. Vaccinia virus, or coxpox, was first used to wipe out the deadly scourge of smallpox from the face of the earth.

Jacobs uses genetically engineered strains of vaccinia virus that serve as the carrier of agents to raise an immune response against infectious agents, including HIV. His work is funded by a $900,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to use this technology to create a vaccine to prevent AIDS.

“We think we’ve developed a vaccine vector that will give a better immune response than anything we’ve had before, and now we’re going to put HIV genes in there and hope it evokes an immune response to HIV,” said Jacobs. His research group includes assistant research professor Karen Kibler and a team of 20 dedicated undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral researchers.

Each summer, Jacobs takes students to Africa to volunteer in AIDS education centers serving those populations most hard-hit by HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.  It was on a trip to Africa nearly a decade ago, when Jacobs saw first-hand impact of the AIDS epidemic in Africa, that he made a commitment to use his scientific talents to advance an HIV vaccine.

The Apothecary Shops Night for Life will be held at the Phoenician Resort in Scottsdale, at 6000 East Camelback Road. The evening starts with cocktails and a silent auction at 6 p.m. Tickets start at $350 and tables of 10 at $3,500.

For information about Night for Life, to make a donation to the auction, or to purchase tickets or a table, please visit Southwest Center’s Web site at www.swhiv.org or call (602) 307-5330.