Over $22M in Grants From Gilead to Study Three Areas of HIV Cure Research

Dreamstime

Funding will support these 12 research- and community-based projects. 

January 11, 2017

___________________________________________________________________________________ 

Pharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences has awarded a total of over $22 million in grants to 12 projects focused on finding a cure for HIV, according to a Gilead press release.

The projects focus on three areas: community perspectives of cure research, efficacy studies in animal models, and translational research (which means applying, or “translating,” scientific knowledge into real-world uses). The projects are conducted by community-based groups, academic institutes and nonprofits.

“We know from decades of work addressing the issue of HIV/AIDS that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Through partnerships with dedicated and results-driven organizations—such as the worthy recipients of our grant funding—our goal is to help in the discovery and development of a safe and effective cure,” said William Lee, PhD, Gilead’s executive vice president of research, in the press release. “We are excited about the potential of these projects and are looking forward to seeing the results and learnings that emerge from them.”

Gilead manufactures a number of HIV meds including Atripla, Descovy, Genvoya, Odefsey, Stribild, Truvada and Viread.

According to the press release, Gilead awarded the grants to the following institutes. The list also includes the principal investigators and the formal name of the research projects:
Massachusetts General Hospital—Galit Alter, PhD—Development of a Novel Class of Broadly Functional Antibodies (bFAbs) That Can Kill the Viral Reservoir Within Lymphoid Sanctuaries

• Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center—Lawrence Corey, MD—Adoptive Transfer of Genetically Protected and Genetically Modified Defined Populations of CAR T Cells as a Modality to Achieve HIV-1 Cure
• Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Center for Cancer Research—George N. Pavlakis, MD, PhD—Efficacy of Heterodimeric IL-15 Treatment Regimens in Reducing SIV Reservoir
• Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine—Robert Siliciano, MD, PhD—Measuring the Latent Reservoir for HIV
• University of Zurich, Institute of Medical Virology—Alexandra Trkola, PhD—SEEK, UNCOVER and ELIMINATE: Eliciting Antiviral and Infected Cell-Directed Activities Towards a Cure of HIV-1
• Institut Pasteur—Olivier Schwartz, PhD—Novel Methods to Visualize and Eliminate the HIV-1 Reservoir
• Aarhus University Hospital—Ole Schmeltz Sogaard, MD, PhD—Combining a TLR9 Agonist With Broadly Neutralizing Antibodies for Viral Reservoir Reduction and Immunological Control of HIV Infection: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial
• University of KwaZulu-Natal—Thumbi Ndung’u, PhD—The FRESH Study: Females Rising Through Education, Support and Health (FRESH) Acute HIV Infection Cohort
• Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine—Michael M. Lederman, MD—Reservoir Reduction With Interleukin-2 and Transcriptional Activation
• AIDS Foundation of Chicago—Amy Johnson, PhD—Chicago Unites in Research to End HIV (CURE HIV)
• Project Inform—David Evans—Assuring Successful Community Participation in HIV Cure Research
• My Brother’s Keeper, Inc.— DeMarc Hickson, PhD—HIV Cure Research Perception Among HIV-Infected African American MSM, and Affected Communities in the Deep American South: A Multi-Level Mixed Methods Perspective

For more about Cure research, read a collection of POZ articles here.

Read more articles from POZ, here.