Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). AIDS is now a pandemic. In 2007, it was estimated that 33.2 million people lived with the disease worldwide, and that AIDS killed an estimated 2.1 million people, including 330,000 children. Although treatments for AIDS and HIV can slow the course of the disease, they are not curative. No vaccine is currently available.

Lentigen is collaborating with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) to develop a non-integrating HIV vaccine. The initial phase is the development and testing of a SIV version of the vaccine candidate in non-human primates.