[Letter to Jon Cohen from Tilahun Yilma]

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS

BERKELEY * DAVIS * IRVINE * LOS ANGELES * RIVERSIDE * SAN DIEGO * SAN FRANCISCO SANTA BARBARA * SANTA CRUZ
INTERNATIONAL LABORATORY OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY SCHOOL OF VETERINARY MEDICINE
FOR TROPICAL DISEASE AGENTS DAVIS, CALIFORNIA 95616-8739
FAO/UN COLLABORATIVE LABORATORY ON BIOTECHNOLOGY
Office [phone]
Lab [phone]
FAX [phone]
October 13, 1997
Dr. Jon Cohen, Science Reporter
Science
368 Stafford Avenue
Cardiff, CA 92007
Dear Dr. Cohen:
It was my pleasure to meet you at the National Consortium for Vaccine Development Group
(NCVDG) meeting at the NIH in Bethesda, MD, and I have read with interest your comments
regarding weakened SIV vaccines in the Science News section of Science, October 3. While
your report was reliable so far as it went, I don't really think the outlook for these vaccines is all
doom and gloom. You may remember that my presentation at the meeting emphasized the use of
lymphokines such as IFN-y to enhance safety and efficacy of SIVAnef vaccines. Our construct
SIVHyWN ( SIVAnef expressing IFN-y) proved to be more highly attenuated and more efficacious
than SIVAnef, and additionally was not lethal to neonates. I still believe it is entirely feasible that
with this foundation a vaccine might eventually be constructed that would meet the criteria for
human use.
NIH reports from this meeting were highly encouraging on the results with attenuated vaccines.
I am enclosing two reprints with our data, along with the NIH report; I regret that these
publications were not forwarded to you earlier. I am also sending a note to the Editor of Science
regarding this information. I hope our contributions will merit mention in your future reports.
Sincerely,
Tilahun Yilma
Director and Professor of Virology 570505.0 I