Good morning, everyone. I want to thank the chair for welcoming us here. The University of Manitoba is a relatively small institution, but when it comes to HIV research it hits above its weight: Dr. Frank Plummer has been working in Africa for 17 years; Dr. Stephen Moses has been working in India for the past 10 years.
As was mentioned, my name is Keith Fowke and I'm a professor both at the University of Manitoba and at the University of Nairobi. I'm also the basic science representative at the Canadian Association for HIV Research. However, I'm just speaking on behalf of myself today.
My own research is pre-vaccine. It focuses on trying to determine what parts of the immune system need to be activated in order to protect someone from HIV infection. We have ongoing studies in Manitoba and in Kenya to explore various aspects of this question. Our Kenyan studies have shown that some individuals are naturally resistant to HIV infection. I have been studying natural immunity to HIV since 1988 and have been regularly going to Kenya for the past 20 years to conduct these studies.
My research has focused on commercial sex workers who are intensely exposed to HIV and yet remain uninfected. We believe if we can unlock the mystery for why these individuals remain uninfected, we can convert that knowledge into a vaccine that can protect millions of people worldwide. The problem is that the immune system is highly complex, and unravelling its mysteries is an equally complex process.
As have many of you, I have seen firsthand the need for an HIV vaccine both at home in Canada and in Africa. I was very proud when the Canadian government developed the Canadian HIV vaccine initiative. Through its several programs, the entire Canadian HIV research community felt that we were being given an opportunity to make an even greater contribution to the global effort to develop an HIV vaccine. For example, through its discovery grant process, I was fortunate enough to receive one of the CHVI's funded grants offered through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. This grant will allow us to determine the role of certain genes of the immune system in HIV infection.
The CHVI is an important initiative, but it could be doing more. Since its inception in 2007, the CHVI has been promising large team grants to fund Canadian researchers to work with researchers from low- and middle-income countries to study HIV vaccines right in the heart of the pandemic. It has been several years since this announcement, and these large team grants remain unlaunched, much to the frustration of Canadian researchers and our international partners.
The largest of the CHVI programs was obviously the HIV vaccine manufacturing facility. As a researcher who studies how to form vaccines, before vaccines are required, I ask whether this facility was needed. I believe it was. Linking researchers with vaccine production is not easy, and this initiative would have helped that. I feel that if such a facility was going to be built, it was important to ensure it had close links with HIV researchers. That is why I was pleased that the University of Manitoba was a partner with ICID on their proposal.
The critical mass of HIV researchers we have built up in Winnipeg, and our international connections, made it a strong environment to support that research link. I believe the cancellation of the production facility is a lost opportunity to connect HIV researcher communities more closely with an academically linked, not-for-profit vaccine manufacturer.
However, my main message to you today is about looking forward. The Canadian HIV vaccine research community is strong, with researchers from St. John's to Vancouver and all points in between. Because funding is tight in Canada, Canadian researchers are highly efficient and many are recognized as leaders internationally. As an example, in 2009 Canadian researchers hosted, in Winnipeg, an international meeting of over 100 scientists throughout the world, all focusing on natural immunity to HIV. This was the first meeting of its kind ever held. Now our team is leading the formation of an international consortium, with the goal of allowing the world's leaders in the field of natural immunity to work together on a regular basis.
There are many other examples of Canadian leadership internationally. If the decision to fund the vaccine facility is not reversed, I believe the money should be re-invested into CHVI and CIHR to help Canadian researchers discover exactly what needs to go into a vaccine in order to make it effective.
Understanding what aspects of the immune system need to be turned on and exactly how to do that is a major gap in developing an effective HIV vaccine. Canadian researchers are recognized leaders internationally in a number of areas critical to filling that gap.
I believe we should invest in Canadian research so that Canadians can play a leading role in uncovering the mysteries of how the immune system can be educated to stave off HIV infection and so that an effective HIV vaccine can be developed to the benefit of the whole world.
The strong, independent, and wonderful HIV-resistant women we work with in Nairobi are living proof that an answer is out there. We just have to be smart enough to figure it out. Canadian researchers should be leading that quest through the CHVI.
Thank you very much.