By Heather Boerner

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — From where Linda-Gail Bekker sits as director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre in Cape Town, science has been losing ground against HIV for years, especially when it comes to young women. After all, in some parts of the country, girls who are 15 today have an 80 percent chance of acquiring HIV in their lifetimes.

“We’re really in the trenches here,” she said. “We have to bring all the technology, tools—you know, innovations—we can find to start turning that war around.”