September of 2009 also marks the 25th anniversary of HIV/AIDS research at Duke.  I personally remember the arrival (in early September 1984) of an emissary dispatched from Bob Gallo’s laboratory carrying viral stocks of ‘HTLV-III’ and a number of vials of cryopreserved PBMC.  Tom Matthews, Al Langlois, and I all crowded around a laminar flow hood in the BSL-3 laboratory in Module 2 of the ALIF Bldg. (now CCIF), as we learned how to propagate the virus while also worrying about whether it might be spread through aerosols created in the lab.  We have come a long way since then, learning much along the way, but still facing formidable challenges in the development of efficacious preventive vaccines and effective new therapeutic modalities.  In retrospect, none of our many contributions to the field of AIDS research would have been possible (or at least as timely) without the very early support and guidance from Dr. Robert C. Gallo and his outstanding consortium of dedicated scientists at the NCI.  His tremendous generosity with critical reagents and overall scientific ‘hand holding’ while we all came up to speed in this exciting new field were essential to our eventual scientific discoveries.  To both celebrate the 25th anniversary of Duke HIV/AIDS research and gratefully acknowledge the unselfish support of the Gallo lab, we have invited Bob to deliver the Fifth Annual Thomas J. Matthews Lecture on November 13th in the Griffith Film Theater in the Bryan Student Union Center on campus.

 

The CFAR Fall Scientific Retreat once again serves as the focal point of this year’s planned CFAR activities.  The Retreat will be held on Tuesday, September 29th in the Searle Center. In writing our competitive renewal application, we proposed a number of important new initiatives and significant modifications to our existing CFAR infrastructure.  Rather than wait for the funding decision on the competitive renewal application, we plan to implement many of these proposed changes during Year 5.   Highlights of the specific changes for Year 5 will be presented during the Fall Scientific Retreat.

 

If you would like a brief summary of the overall accomplishments of the Duke CFAR for each of the last 4 years, please see the individual Director's Overviews excerpted from the past Annual Progress Reports submitted to the NIH.