VRC Vaccine Research Studies

Tony Wang

VRC Clinical Trial Participant
Healthy Volunteer Program

I was born in La Jolla, CA in September 1968 and moved to the Washington DC area when I was a child. I grew up in an upper middle class household with a brother and a sister and multiple pets. After I graduated from high school in Gaithersburg, MD, I attended the University of Illinois. Upon graduation, I started working at the US Conference of Mayors, where I learned about the AIDS epidemic that was bursting onto the scene in major American cities. Then I moved on to the American Red Cross, where I saw the impact of AIDS on blood collection and the strain it was putting on all sorts of entities.

I didn’t do much about this until I saw an ad on the Metro recruiting volunteers for an HIV/AIDS vaccine. That’s when I decided to do something about this epidemic.

The ad I saw was out during the same time that Bill and Melinda Gates announced that they’d be devoting much of their fortune to preventing diseases like AIDS in underdeveloped nations. I figured that even though I didn’t have the resources of Bill and Melinda Gates, I could do something to help fight the disease.

That marked the beginning of my involvement with the Vaccine Research Center (VRC). I have continued to volunteer with the VRC and have participated in several other studies since then. My involvement with the VRC has lasted for five years and I intend to continue it as long as possible.

“You may not have the financial resources of Bill and Melinda Gates and you may not have the scientific knowledge needed to develop a vaccine, but you can help those people develop a vaccine that could save millions of lives. It’s very simple, painless, and the staff of the VRC are true professionals who will make it easy for you every step of the way.”

back to top