Contact:  Rick Peterson, Manager of News Services, 920/832-6590
For Immediate Release
April 26, 2000

Leading Scientist Discusses Latest AIDS Research in Lawrence University 
Lecture

     APPLETON, WIS. -- A researcher on the front lines of the AIDS
battlefield says the virus that causes the disease remains beyond the
reach of current treatments, but remains optimistic scientists will
eventually find a cure for the killer infection.
     Dr. Ashley Haase, professor and head of the department of
microbiology at the University of Minnesota Medical School, shares news
on the latest research Wednesday, May 3 in the Lawrence University
science hall colloquium, "AIDS Vaccines: Opportunities and Obstacles."
Haase's address, at 4:15 p.m. in Youngchild Hall, Room 161, is free and
open to the public.
     Haase drew international attention for his discovery in 1993 that
the AIDS virus hides undetected in the lymph nodes, killing healthy
cells and exhausting the immune system.  He also was the principal
scientist in a recent study reported last fall in the journal Science
that discovered the AIDS virus can reproduce itself in inactive immune
"T" cells, which are ignored by current AIDS drugs.  According to Haase,
these dormant cells are like slow-ticking time bombs that can later
spread the virus throughout the  body.  The findings help explain why
the disease has been impossible to cure and why the AIDS virus always
returns once medication stops.  Until more effective vaccines can be
developed, Haase says anyone infected will probably have to take AIDS
drugs for life, even if tests show they have little, if any, virus in
their systems. 
     A 1961 graduate of Lawrence, Haase has served as the chair of the
federal AIDS Research Advisory Committee and is the Minnesota Director
of the Great Lakes Regional Center for AIDS Research .  A member of the
University of Minnesota Medical School faculty since 1984, he was
appointed a Regents' Professor, the highest recognition the university
bestows on a faculty member, last May.