Researchers in San Diego and North Carolina have been awarded up to $186 million in federal funds to develop an AIDS vaccine.

U-T San Diego says the grant announced Wednesday will go to the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla and North Carolina's Duke University.

Scripps will receive about $77 million over the seven-year life of the grant.

It was awarded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.

AIDS has killed 27 million people worldwide since the 1980s and continues to be epidemic in some regions.