NEWS RELEASE

Office of External Communications

Houston, TX 77204-5017 Fax: 713.743.8199

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 15, 2004

Contact: Lisa Merkl
713.743.8192 (office)
713.605.1757 (pager)

PIONEERING AIDS RESEARCHER TO SPEAK AT UH
Committee of 100 Member David Ho to Present New Findings on Vaccine Research

David D. Ho, M.D., the man behind the famous AIDS cocktail, will speak at the University of Houston, at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 18.

In his lecture – “AIDS: From Vaccine Research to Public Health” – Ho will speak about strides in research that have come about due to the AIDS epidemic in China, where estimates expect the total case load to reach 10 million infected with HIV by 2010.

Ho will talk about a DNA vaccine that has already reached phase-I human trial, as well as discuss two more vaccines under development. These vaccines under development are based on a viral strain common in China’s southwest region. The China AIDS Initiative, a consortium of Chinese and American organizations that have come together to combine forces in advocacy, public education, testing and prevention work, and antiretroviral therapy, will also be discussed.

“It is most gratifying to have our work progress from the discovery of new knowledge to the application of old knowledge,” Ho said. “To go from basic research to clinical applications to public health in the land of my heritage is especially rewarding.”

Ho is the founding scientific director and CEO of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, a world-renowned biomedical research institute, the Irene Diamond Professor at The Rockefeller University and a Committee of 100 (C-100) member.

Brought to UH by C-100, a national organization composed of more than 100 of the most influential Chinese Americans in the United States, Ho’s lecture is also sponsored by UH’s Texas Center for Superconductivity and Advanced Materials, the Office of Houston City Council Member Gordon Quan and Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics (LEAP). The event is being held in conjunction with a daylong Asian-American professional development workshop co-hosted by LEAP and C-100 at the Houston Community College administration building.

Holding six honorary doctorates, a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences, Time magazine’s 1996 “Man of the Year” and a 2001 Presidential Medal recipient, Ho has been actively engaged in AIDS research for 20 years. He continues to pursue therapeutic studies that attempt to eradicate HIV, in addition to efforts to develop a vaccine to halt the spread of the AIDS epidemic.

The lecture will be Web cast live at http://www.uh.edu/streaming/live.htm and archived at http://www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom/webcast/index.html.

WHO: David D. Ho, M.D.
World-renowned AIDS Researcher
WHAT: Committee of 100 / University of Houston Distinguished Lecture
WHEN: 5 to 5:30 p.m. (media availability)
7:30 to 8:30 p.m. (lecture); 8:30 to 9 p.m. (meet and greet)
Saturday, Sept. 18, 2004
WHERE: University of Houston Hilton Hotel
Waldorf Astoria Ballroom
4800 Calhoun Road, Entrance 1 - Free Parking in Lot 1A

For more information about the C-100, visit http://www.committee100.org/.

For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.