September 9 – 13, the Ragon Institute and the Harvard Center for AIDS Research (Harvard CFAR) co-hosted AIDS Vaccine 2012, the world’s largest and most prestigious global scientific conference focused exclusively on HIV vaccine research.

Watch a webcast of the event
Download meeting agenda (pdf)

The annual international conference brought together scientists, community advocates, funders, and policy makers from around the world to present cutting edge scientific results, exchange new ideas, educate future leaders, and engage a diverse community of scientists in the quest for an HIV vaccine.

“The Harvard CFAR and the Ragon Institute are global leaders in HIV vaccine research and consistent contributors of impressive breakthroughs in HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention,” said Alan Bernstein, Executive Director of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise. “These institutions model what the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise and the annual AIDS Vaccine conferences stand for: global collaboration, rapid data sharing, innovation and learning opportunities across both geographical and institutional boundaries to accelerate the search for an HIV vaccine.”

“Expanding, promoting and facilitating collaboration across disciplines in HIV/AIDS research are core principles of the Harvard CFAR and the Ragon Institute,” said Dan Barouch, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. “AIDS Vaccine 2012 will engage the broad scientific and clinical community worldwide.”

AIDS Vaccine 2012 featured daily plenary presentations by leading researchers, clinicians, and community advocates, and oral and poster presentations of hundreds of research papers addressing every aspect of HIV vaccine development and testing.

Co-chairs of AIDS Vaccine 2012 are: Galit Alter, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Massachusetts General Hospital, Lindsey Baden, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine at HMS and at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dan Barouch, M.D., Professor of Medicine at HMS and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Bruce Walker, M.D., Director of the Harvard CFAR and the Ragon Institute, Professor of Medicine at HMS and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.

“The participation of young and early-career investigators is essential to solving the most pressing scientific research and public health challenges we face today,” said Galit Alter, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.

About the Organizers:

The Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise is a unique alliance of researchers, funders, industry, policy makers and advocates. Our mission is to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic through unprecedented global collaboration to speed the development of safe and effective HIV vaccines. Enterprise stakeholders are the global leaders in HIV vaccine research: the African AIDS Vaccine Program, France’s Agence Nationale de Recherche sur le Sida (ANRS), the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC), AIDS Vaccine Asian Network, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative, GlaxoSmithKline, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), the Medical Research Council, Merck, Novartis, sanofi Pasteur, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), U.S. Military HIV Research Program, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Wellcome Trust and World Health Organization.