The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave $25 million yesterday to the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the Harvard Center for International Development for an AIDS research and prevention program in Nigeria.

The largest single private grant that HSPH has ever received, the gift will fund the Nigerian AIDS Prevention Initiative to combat HIV infection in Nigeria.

"Everybody here is absolutely thrilled, and we think we can make a difference in this disease on the most populous nation on the continent," said Robin Herman, director of communications for HSPH.

Phyllis J. Kanki, associate professor of pathobiology in the faculty of public health, will direct the program and work in conjunction with Nigerian scientists.

The project will focus on Nigeria's population and trends concerning the spread of the disease, rather than on the chemical nature of the disease.

"We will not be working doing research with test tubes," Kanki said. "We will be studying populations and epidemiology of the disease."

The researchers intend to "identify groups that will be targeted as high risk populations," she said.

The goal of the project is to slow the rate of spread of the disease in Nigeria.