New HVTNews highlights advantages of network research

Read the new edition of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network's HVTNews, which is now available online. The winter 2013 issue of the Network's newsletter highlights the advantages of clinical research done in a network, where patterns of interest can emerge from looking across multiple trials.

The use of standardized procedures and collaborative research allows HVTN investigators to compare results across the Network's trials and identify patterns of immune responses common to certain vaccine products and regimens. The ability to engage in such analyses is a tremendous advantage to the field of HIV vaccine research, and some of the results are discussed in this issue.

Also featured is an article on early phase HIV vaccine trial designs. As the HIV vaccine field continues to mature, we are in an exciting time with more HIV vaccine products available for testing than ever before. With numerous possibilities for regimens, product combinations, and administration techniques as well as host and environmental factors potentially affecting immune responses, clinical trials can become very complex. Network statisticians have developed novel trial designs to tackle these complexities and help advance promising candidates to later phase trials efficiently and economically. Read more about these design innovations in this issue.

Also in this edition:

• The role of monoclonal antibodies in the search for HIV vaccines
• A special pilot project of the Office of HIV/AIDS Network Coordination, involving the HVTN's Seattle clinical research unit
• Photos from the HVTN's Fall Full Group Meeting Reception, honoring community members who contributed to the success of recruiting participants into the world's only ongoing HIV vaccine efficacy trial, HVTN 505.

Access a PDF of the winter HVTN newsletter here. The publication is also available under the “What's new on Center websites” section of the Center News Weekly home page.

HVTNews highlights the progress and important issues of the HIV vaccine research field and the HVTN—an international collaboration of scientists and educators who are searching for a safe and globally effective HIV vaccine.

Headquartered at the Hutchinson Center, the Network's HIV Vaccine Clinical Research Sites are located at leading research institutions in more than 25 cities on four continents and led by internationally renowned HIV vaccine and prevention investigators.