DeVico's idea was to build a vaccine consisting of gp120 permanently fused to its CD4 receptor.

FORBES: Outsmarting AIDS

The protein on the surface of the virus, called gp120, constantly mutates to escape detection by antibodies.

FORBES: Outsmarting AIDS

They are attempts to get a better humoral response by sticking gp120 on to the surfaces of fatty bubbles.

ECONOMIST: Recipes for an AIDS vaccine

So smothering a virus's gp120 proteins with antibodies should stop it from getting into a cell in the first place.

ECONOMIST: Recipes for an AIDS vaccine

Killing the virus with, for example, formaldehyde, leaves a platform that presents gp120 to the immune system much as a live virus does.

ECONOMIST: Recipes for an AIDS vaccine | The

But gp120's innards are exposed for 30 minutes or so while the protein is hooked to its human receptor, called CD4, in preparation to invade a cell.

FORBES: Outsmarting AIDS

In the early 1990s DeVico figured he might get around the mutation problem by targeting the crucial portion of gp120 that is normally obscured by HIV's surface.

FORBES: Outsmarting AIDS

This consists of two sugar-protein molecules known as gp120 and gp41 that react with a protein called CD4, which is found on the surface of certain cells of the immune system.

ECONOMIST: AIDS vaccines