This coloured transmission electron micrograph (TEM) shows a section through the cell membrane of a T-lymphocyte white blood cell (T-cell). The “bubbles” are budding Human Immunodeficiency Viruses (HIV) (Image: BSIP VEM / Science Photo Library)

HOW do you deal with a virus which attacks the immune system that is trying to fight it off? It’s a question HIV researchers have been trying to solve for years, and now they may have come up with a solution: bypass the immune system altogether.

Nine macaques have been protected against the monkey version of HIV with a novel vaccine that sidesteps the …