Induction of vaccine medicated-protection against sexually-acquired infection remains one of the greatest challenges in biomedicine.  This is particularly well exemplified
by infection with human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV), UNAIDS estimate 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS with 5 million newly acquired infections in 2003 alone. The majority of infections are acquired by sexual transmission with women being disproportionately susceptible.  Traditional vaccine development is based on the principle that immunological memory, elicited by vaccination, will trigger an immune response of sufficient magnitude and quality to eliminate, or render innocuous, the infectious agent upon subsequent exposure.  Such a conventional approach assumes that once infected, the host can disarm the infectious agent via the adaptive immune response.  However, it is not at all clear if retroviruses, and particularly lentiviruses such as HIV, can ever be eliminated once the host is infected.  Thus vaccine design may have to break with tradition
and assume that sterilizing immunity at the portal of viral entry will be required.  Hence immunological memory may not be enough to protect against
HIV, but may require maintenance of constant and elevated levels of local specific immune effector function.  The lecture will present preliminary results from the initial phase of the
development of a sustained protective system against vaginally-acquired HIV-1 Infection that uses an innovative but highly practical approach applicable for
use in developing countries.  The lecture will focus on the design and formulation of mucoadhesive micro particles having surface adsorbed antigen.  Data will be presented showing that such particles are taken up by mucosal antigen presenting cells (APCs).