Researchers have come together to make critical advances in developing an effective vaccine against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The findings were published in the journal Immunity in two individual papers.

The research describes the first steps in a vaccine approach that aims to prompt the creation of Broadly neutralizing HIV-1 antibodies (bnAbs)--antibodies that are broad enough to fight and protect against many different variants of a virus.

Researchers have long studied how a small percentage of infected individuals with HIV are able to make bnAbs.

Even when bnAbs do develop during infection in these cases, they arise too late to help block the virus.

However, researchers have demonstrated that bnAbs can protect against the virus if they are present before a person gets infected with HIV.

This observation has led scientists to try to develop vaccines that induce bnAbs in healthy individuals, but designing such vaccines has proved difficult.