To support the conduct, improvement, and development of assays designed to evaluate and characterize the cellular immune responses of Non Human Primates (NHP)s that have been immunized with candidate HIV or SIV vaccines or infected with SIV, SHIV, or HIV in studies conducted at the NIAID SVEU contract sites or by NIH-supported investigators. To use state-of-the-art technologies, including ELISPOT, intracellular cytokine staining (ICS), flow cytometry, and tetramer assays to accomplish the contract objectives, and shall incorporate new and improved technologies into contract activities when appropriate. The contractor will be expected to pursue the development of assays to detect immune responses in mucosal tissues, including assays that are able to detect virus-specific responses using small numbers of cells. The contractor will use GLP processes to conduct assays when assessing cellular immune responses in NHP studies conducted with human clinical candidate AIDS vaccines, to allow the assay results to be compared with assays being conducted with the same vaccines in human clinical trials.
