Continuing Coverage: A $20 million grant funded by the National Institutes of Health was awarded to a collaboration led by the Oak Crest Institute of Science, of which UTMB is a part. The fund is to support the development of new intravaginal rings capable of delivering strong antiretroviral drugs to prevent HIV from being sexually transmitted to women. Intravaginal rings are available commercially for contraception purposes and hormone replacement therapies. Researchers believe they are a promising drug delivery system that can efficiently prevent HIV infections. To have success in HIV/AIDS treatment, multiple-drug combination of several antiretroviral drugs are required. Until now, it was not possible to administer these multiple-drug combinations through this ring technique. Now, thanks to the pod-intravaginal ring platform, it is possible to deliver 5 different drugs at the same time, all with independent dosages. In vitro, pre-clinical, and clinical studies will be conducted by a UTMB team to assess the safety and efficacy of the intravaginal ring. The UTMB team includes Dr. Kathleen Vincent, Dr. Richard Pyles, Dr. Massoud Motamedi and Dr. Monique Ferguson, all from different areas of knowledge