The US government is poised to start a new AIDS vaccine trial, prompting some to caution that it is too soon to initiate such studies after a linkurl:Merck vaccine;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/53633/ not only failed to show effectiveness but also may have increased participants' HIV infection rate. Late last week, the NIH's linkurl:AIDS Vaccine Research Subcommittee;http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/research/topics/HIV/vaccines/advisory/avrs/ voted 23-3 in favor of beginning the PAVE 100 HIV vaccine trial. The study would be conducted by the linkurl:Partnership for AIDS Vaccine Evaluation;http://www.hivpave.org/ (PAVE), which is a consortium of government agencies and government-funded organizations involved in HIV vaccine research, and is sponsored by NIAID. linkurl:Dennis Burton,;http://www.scripps.edu/ims/burton/person.htm a Scripps Research Institute immunologist and member of the advisory panel, urged caution. "We're redesigning the aims of human HIV vaccine research without redesigning the vaccine," Burton, referring to a linkurl:refocusing;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/54488/ of AIDS vaccine research decided upon at an NIH meeting in March, told __Bloomberg News__. "Let's not go into...

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