Burakoff agrees, noting that test tubeexperiments don't reveal whether a drug will betoxic to humans, or for how long a drug might beeffective. All three researchers say much researchstill needs to be done.
But the team is already working to contractwith a pharmaceutical firm, enabling them tomanufacture and test 50 or 100 differentvariations of the CPF molecule, Burakoff says. Andwhile nobody will offer a timetable, the teamseems optimistic.
Assessing Harvard's Impact
Regardless of whether the CPF discovery pansout, Harvard researchers say the University hasalready proven a global leader in AIDS research.
For instance, a Harvard microbiology professor,Max E. Essex, was the first to suggest that aretrovirus causes AIDS and was also the first toidentify a second, less virulent form of thevirus, called HIV-2.
Essex, who now chairs the Institute, alsodiscovered the simian immunodeficiency virus,which is found in monkeys and causes an illnesssimilar to AIDS.
Groopman was one of the first to test AZT, oneof the most common drugs used today to treat AIDSpatients. Hirsch was among the first to showincreased effectiveness of a combination of AZTand another preventative drug, CD4.
And the list goes on.
Thus, it should come as little suprise thatoutside researchers also look to Harvard as avaluable contributor to research. Paula M.Pitha-Rowe, an AIDS specialist at Johns HopkinsMedical School, says that while Harvard may not bethe leading institution for AIDS research, it iscertainly among the top few institutions for suchresearch.
"There are several places which do very goodresearch, and Harvard is one of them," she says.
And Groopman, at least, goes even further. "Ithink honestly, if you look at the quality ofresearch and the level of productivity, I thinkthere's no institution in the country or the worldthat has done as much as Harvard," he says.