One Objective in Mind

Our cover story in this issue of Innovations is a testament to the caliber of scientists amfAR funds with your generous support. While many may be worthy, few rise to such an exalted level—a Nobel Prize—and we salute Drs. Weissman and Karikó for their lifesaving work and historic achievement.

Dr. Weissman is a member of amfAR’s gene therapy consortium, ARCHE-GT, which was recently awarded renewal funding of $1.3 million to test a complex combination approach to curing HIV that has been several years in the making. The grant is among a series of research awards totaling $5.5 million that amfAR has made in the last nine months alone.

While our grantees represent a wide range of expertise and perspectives, all have one objective in mind: curing HIV. This has been the overarching goal of our research program for the past 15 years. But for those who may be skeptical of the need for a cure in this age of antiretroviral therapy,

we thought it useful to set out in detail our reasons for believing a cure is essential and urgently needed. See our special feature section.

Rounding out this issue are updates on our advocacy work and international initiatives, as well as a profile of the cutting-edge work being done by grantee Dr. Ya-Chi Ho of Yale University. We also report on the recent benefit events that, along with your support, make our work possible, and we are thrilled to pay tribute to the life and legacy of our good friend and veteran AIDS activist Dionne Warwick.

With grateful thanks, as always, for standing with us. Together, we’ll make AIDS history.

Kevin Robert Frost
Chief Executive Officer