KANSAS CITY, Kan.—A prominent University of Kansas AIDS researcher who was developing a vaccine aimed at helping poor people around the world fight the virus has died of a heart attack.

Opendra “Bill” Narayan, 71, a senior faculty member at University of Kansas Medical Center, died Dec. 24.

Narayan gained prominence more than a decade ago after developing a form of HIV that caused a disease in monkeys that was similar to AIDS in humans. He used his new animal model to test vaccines, and received close to $50 million in grants—including more than $16 million from the National Institutes of Health—for research at the medical center.

His colleagues say they will continue his work.

“I hope I and others will be able to take his legacy and move forward,” said James Laufenberg, president of Lenexa-based ImmunoGenetix, a company Narayan helped found to bring his AIDS vaccine to market.

Laufenberg said his company was working on an application to the Food and Drug Administration for permission to test Narayan’s vaccine on a small number of people, and hoped to begin clinical trials within two years.

Narayan’s vaccines were not intended to prevent people from becoming infected, but he had demonstrated that vaccinated monkeys did not become ill after being infected with the simian version of HIV.