The Duke CHAVD will build on 14 years of experience in the Duke Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology (CHAVI) 2005-2012 and the Duke CHAVI-ID 2012-2019 programs. The original CHAVI program focused on new vaccine strategies to overcome key immunological roadblocks in HIV vaccine design. These roadblocks included a lack of understanding of the correlates of protective immunity to HIV-1 and a lack of vectors and immunogens that can induce protective, durable immune responses at mucosal sites. The CHAVI studied the transmitted virus and the biological events that occur during transmission and helped to define protective innate and adaptive host defenses against HIV in humans and SIV in primates.

The CHAVI-ID built upon this work and developed first generation HIV-1 immunogens to induce HIV-1 protective antibodies, and established a translational pipeline to dramatically accelerate HIV-1 vaccine development with our own GMP manufacturing capabilities at Duke. The overall goal of the Duke CHAVD is to develop an effective HIV-1 vaccine for global use.