M. Brodsky Foundation's board member links AIDS vaccine for cats to HIV.

[Guest guest]

World AIDS Marathon

M. Brodsky Foundation

1247 Mara CourtAtlantic Beach, NY 11509

Contact: Brodsky

(516) 432-1254richardbpc@...www.worldaidsmarathon.com

Janet K. Yamamoto, PhD, a professor of pathobiology at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine and member of the board of directors of the M. Brodsky Foundation has discovered a link between the viruses that cause feline and human AIDS.

Yamamoto’s groundbreaking research may predict that cats with feline immunodeficiency virus, also known as FIV or feline AIDS, could possibly be more effectively treated using some form of the experimental human vaccine. Yamamoto theorizes that the apparent relationships between the human and feline viruses can lead to a vaccine for human AIDS.

From Nov. 29 to Dec. 6, 2005, the foundation will be bringing to Gainesville the World AIDS Marathon, conference, Art for AIDS exhibition, Noor H'mara: A Concert for AIDS, nightclub awareness nights, and H'mara: A Night of Poetry, amongst many other events, in commemoration of World AIDS Day on Dec. 1.

Yamamoto will be speaking at the conference. She will enlighten us all with her expertise and inspire us to strive for a cure, which may be closer than we think.

“As an AIDS researcher and professor at the University myself, I know that the 2005 World AIDS Marathon is a great opportunity for the University of Florida to further enhance its research efforts in the fight against AIDS, and I strongly urge runners and non-runners to support this very worthy event,†Yamamoto said

Yamamoto, who received a doctorate in microbiology from the University of Texas Medical Branch in 1981, developed a vaccine for feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV). The vaccine, called Fel-O-Vax®, was approved by the USDA in March 2002.

In 1986, Yamamoto co-discovered the deadly FIV together with Niels Pederson, D.V.M, of the University of California at .

“Just because there are medications on the market to treat HIV/AIDS, does not mean that there is a cure,†Yamamoto said. “Awareness has dropped in the United States and it’s imperative that the public realizes that this is not a foreign issue.â€