Dr. William Paul, director of the Office of AIDS Research at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, has resigned so he can work on a vaccine against the deadly disease.
Paul, a top immunologist, said in a letter released Friday he was leaving with a “true sense of accomplishment” but he wanted to return to research.
“I believe that such a vaccine is an urgent global public health imperative,” he wrote. “I also believe that the development of an effective HIV vaccine will provide the foundation for the discovery of vaccines for other life-threatening illnesses.”
An international group of physicians said this month they wanted to try out one of the most promising vaccines on themselves, but the NIH told them it was too soon.
The AIDS Treatment Action Group, which lobbies for development of a vaccine and for availability of drugs, said Paul’s resignation would be a great loss.
“We . . . call upon President Clinton, the Congress . . . to ensure the recruitment of an outstanding scientist with leadership capacity to take over,” they said in a statement.
Under Paul’s leadership, the NIH restructured its research on a vaccine for HIV and funded much of the work that has led to the development of so-called cocktail therapy against the infection.
