Philadelphia -- Luis Montaner, D.V.M., Ph.D., a scientist at The Wistar Institute, has been awarded a two-year $79,000 grant from the Robert I. Jacobs Fund of The Philadelphia Foundation to support his "HIV-1 Patient Partnership for Basic Research" project. Announcement of the award was made by Lynette E. Campbell, Vice President for Programs at The Philadelphia Foundation.
Dr. Montaner's project uses medical research in an attempt to find new treatments and develop vaccines for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1), the virus which causes AIDS. Since starting his program in 1996, Dr. Montaner has worked with Philadelphia FIGHT to obtain blood samples from both HIV-infected and healthy donors for use in his research. The "HIV-1 Patient Partnership for Basic Research" also educates the blood donors and their physicians about AIDS research and provides a summer fellowship for one student in the Philadelphia School District to study basic AIDS research.
The Philadelphia Foundation, founded in 1918, guides income from 310 individual and family trusts to nonprofit organizations in Southeastern Pennsylvania. In 1998, the Foundation awarded 761 grants totaling $6.7 million for programs in arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services and public and community development. The Foundation has assets of $180 million and donors continue to establish funds to increase the philanthropic resources available to meet community needs.
The Wistar Institute, established in 1892, was the first independent medical research facility in the country. For more than 100 years, Wistar scientists have been making history and improving world health through their development of vaccines for diseases that include rabies, German measles, infantile gastroenteritis (rotavirus), and cytomegalovirus; discovery of molecules like interleukin-12, which are helping the immune system fight bacteria, parasites, viruses and cancer; and location of genes that contribute to the development of diseases like breast, lung and prostate cancer. Wistar is a National Cancer Institute Cancer Center.