New Duke-based program to oversee HIV vaccine testing

Duke University Medical Center will be housing the testing of potential HIV vaccines after receiving a $52.8 million, seven year grant from the National Institutes of Health, reported the Raleigh News & Observer.

The University announced Tuesday that the project, the External Quality Assurance Oversight Laboratory, will develop, implement and lead the oversight of quality assurance labs involved with HIV/AIDS research and vaccine trials around the world.

The grant will build a Duke-based program so laboratory data can be tested and reproduced as vaccines and other treatments are developed in just one laboratory instead of over many laboratories around the world.

"The absence of a single, centralized laboratory makes it imperative that strict quality assurance standards and protocols are in place," Thomas Denny, head of the new laboratory, told the News & Observer. "Patients, physicians and researchers all need to feel confident that a test on a blood sample performed in New York will yield the same results as the same test performed in London or South Africa... Today, you might not find that."