Barton Haynes, M.D., Duke professor of medicine and director of the Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology, said Merson would play a critical role in AIDS research efforts. "Our inability to control the global AIDS epidemic and the lack of an AIDS vaccine have become enormous global health problems," Haynes said. In the past 13 months, Duke researchers have received more than $350 million for HIV/AIDS research from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.