Posts
The American
Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) has announced its first research grants
for 2012. The four $250,000 two-year awards are the latest grants among the
more than $340 million the group has given since 1985 for HIV/AIDS education,
prevention and treatment programs.
The recipient
researchers are:
*A California
Institute of Technology team that is studying whether HIV continues to
replicate when a patient has an undetectable viral load and, if so, how.
*A Massachusetts
General Hospital team that is focused on a newly discovered cell type that is
resistant to antiretroviral therapy.
*A team at Ghent
University Hospital in Belgium that is developing a new test that can show a
patient's viral load beyond levels currently deemed undetectable.
*A Case Western
Reserve University (CWRU) team that will seek to identify features of cells
that are necessary to maintain HIV latency.
Leading the CWRU work
is Jonathan Karn, a professor and chair of molecular biology and microbiology
in the School of Medicine. Karn and his 10-person team are using specialized
viruses to inactivate genes in these cells to identify targets for drugs that
can treat and eradicate HIV, while not affecting anything else.
“The challenge in
developing strategies for HIV is that the virus becomes silent. You have no way
of touching it,” Karn said. “The immune system can’t see it. Drugs can’t reach
it. You have a reservoir sitting around in patients, even if they’ve been on intensive
therapy for decades.” During the next five years, Karn's team hopes to figure
out how to reverse latency or prevent it from happening.
The Friends of AIDS
Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive
individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread
of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please
visit:
http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
