Outsmarting HIV with vaccine antigens made to order. Duke Research blog, June 29, 2015. AIDS vaccine researchers may be one step closer to outwitting HIV, thanks to designer antibodies and antigens made to order at Duke. HIV was identified as the cause of AIDS in 1983. Despite decades of progress in understanding the virus, an effective vaccine remains elusive. Now, a team of researchers have published a 3-D close-up of a designer protein that, if injected into patients, could help the immune system make better antibodies against the virus — a step forward in the 30-year HIV vaccine race.