Humm I thought i heard somethuing last week on fox news. A researcher was being interviewed on Fox news. He mentioned something about finding a unchangeing protien on the aid virus. I was wondering if anyone else had any info on this.

Also If this is true it is a great day. As than maybe Dr baker coudl use all our crunching to help do modles of this protene.

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Yes Charlie, the majority of the surface of the AIDS virus distorts and changes over time. But there are a few areas that remain the same. These areas are being investigated by many science teams to see if another protein can be found that would bind to that area of the viral cells. Last year BakerLab submitted several potential drug candidates based on the work done by Rosetta@home.

There are two approaches to using this area of the cells to halt the virus. One is to make the body recognize that area and attack it. This is vaccination. If a vaccine were developed that was not harmful, but presented itself to look to the immune system like that area of the AIDS virus, then such a vaccination could teach the body to recognize the key portion of the virus when exposure might occur later. The other approach is to find another protein that will bind to that area. This would potentially rendure the cell harmless, change it's function, or perhaps be a means of delivering a cure of some kind directly to the AIDS cells, without effecting other cells in the body.

I am a volunteer moderator, not a scientist and must admit that some of the description is not completely clear to me, but Dr. Baker wrote about this in his journal in May 2007.

If you would like more details, please post some questions to the science message board.

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Rosetta Moderator: Mod.Sense

I misspoke yesterday. There is no "AIDS virus". The virus in question is HIV. The disease you have if infected with HIV is AIDS. So, an AIDS vaccine would mean one that helps you develop immunity to HIV.

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Rosetta Moderator: Mod.Sense