Emory Vaccine Laboratory Tour

AV200’s primary beneficiary is the Emory Vaccine Center (EVC)

Besides being a beneficiary, the EVC is a key partner in the ride hosting many events over the years. Several EVC employees have been the AV200’s most fervent long-term participants. The mission of the EVC is to find a cure for diseases including HIV. We toured the facility and met a few of the scientists. As with many lab facilities, Emory’s functions as a “shared service center” where scientists pursuing a variety of goals use the expensive equipment to test, learn, and develop cures for many different diseases. This arrangement provides an opportunity for scientists to learn from each other. Specific to HIV, the five areas of research at the EVC cover: Transmission, Vaccines, Immunotherapy/Cure, Humoral/Cellular Immunity, and Clinical Trials.

For more details, explore the Emory Vaccine Center’s website. Specific HIV info on the site can be found here.

How does the EVC use the funds raised by the AV200?

Funds go toward fellowships to budding scientists from the U.S. and abroad. Past fellows supported by the ride’s fundraising include:

  • Bhrugu Yagnik: (2018/2019) Research work focused onto developing vaccines and other treatment options that can cure HIV and eliminate the need of consuming Anti-retroviral therapy (ART) drugs on a daily basis. Most recently (2021), Yagnik’s latest research studies the benefits of using combined treatment to successfully suppress HIV.
  • Amit Upadhyay: (2019/2020) There were two goals of my project. The first was to understand if we can identify characteristics of B cells that turn into the long-lived bone marrow plasma cells and thereby provide long-term immunity by producing effective antibodies. The second was to build resources for accurately studying how the antibody responses evolve by sequencing the germline antibody sequences in multiple rhesus monkeys.

Lab tours can be scheduled with Emory in small groups of 3-5 individuals. Contact the ride directors at info@av200.com for help with this.