Science Patron Jeffrey Epstein Collaborates with the Elton John AIDS Foundation to Combat HIV Resistance The well-known New York science philanthropist, Jeffrey Epstein, has put his support behind the celebrated Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF). The funding marks the collaborative backing for a cocktail approach to fighting the HIV virus and critically for combatting resistance by targeting treatment on an individual basis, based on genotype, blood type and many other factors. For more than a decade now, scientists have agreed that a cocktail of inhibitors and other drugs have been critical to combatting the HIV virus. Viral resistance however has been a growing problem and what is emerging is the growing trend of targeting treatment on an individual basis to reduce the chance of resistant strains. In 2000, Jeffrey Epstein, an established financier and science philanthropist, founded the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard University which, over the past three years, has collaborated with John Hopkins University to develop a database to map and predict the effect of drugs on the HIV virus. Like cancer cells, HIV can develop resistance to inhibitor drugs, even to drug combinations. Resistance is a growing problem for patients, who can stay on the same regimen of drugs for years, and the trial and error of clinical trials can be debilitating and lengthy. Using data collected from thousands of blood tests on more than 20 anti-HIV drugs, the Program for Evolutionary Dynamic's model calculates each drug's ability to suppress viral replication and avoid resistant HIV strains. The model factors in different drug combinations and dosages, but also blood type, viral genotype, viral load, HIV stage, treatment history, age, sex and a host of other variables to arrive at the most precisely engineered predictor of results for future patients. Founded in 1993 by Sir Elton John, the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF) is one of the world's leading nonpr