First Steps toward a Globally Effective HIV/AIDS Vaccine

The enormous diversity of HIV-1 presents a formidable challenge for developing an effective AIDS vaccine. In this issue of Cell, Barouch et al. show that bioinformatically designed antigens, pieced together from multiple HIV immune epitopes, partially protect rhesus macaques from simian-human immunodeficiency virus infection. This “mosaic” approach holds promise for the development of broadly protective vaccines.