TAG HIV Basic Science, Vaccines, and Cure Project Blog
By Richard Jefferys, Project Director at Treatment Action Group (TAG).
recent posts
- HIV Cure Research at AIDS 2026
- In The News: CAR-T Cells for HIV
- TAG’s HIV Cure-Related Clinical Research Listing: Background on the March 2026 Update
- TAG’s HIV Cure-Related Clinical Research Listing: Background on the February 2026 Update
- TAG’s HIV Cure-Related Clinical Research Listing: Background on the December 2025 and January 2026 Updates
Category: Miscellaneous
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Inaugurated in 2003, the bi-annual International Workshop on HIV Persistence during Therapy (aka “the persistence workshop”) is the brainchild of researcher Alain Lafeuillade. The meeting presaged the recent explosion of interest in pursuing a cure for HIV infection, a pursuit many had considered quixotic until the case of Timothy Brown came to light in 2008.…
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A bevy of recently published papers address the use of adenoviruses as vaccine vectors, illuminating both the promise of the approach and some previously unappreciated pitfalls. For the uninitiated, adenoviruses are a family of airborne viruses that are common in nature, causing severe colds. Family members are scientifically categorized into different serotypes based on the…
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The journal Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives is offering several free review articles on HIV research, see abstracts and links below. doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a007252 Vaccine Design for CD8 T Lymphocyte Responses Richard A. Koup and Daniel C. Douek Immunology Laboratory, Vaccine Research Center, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892…
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Active tuberculosis in the pre-antibiotic era had a grim prognosis, but around 50% of people who developed pulmonary disease were able to recover (albeit typically after a prolonged convalescence). In a newly published study from the UK, researchers identify 27 individuals aged 66-91 years old who survived pulmonary TB prior to the availability of treatment,…
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During the plague of Athens in 430 b.c., the Greek historian Thucydides made the first known reference to immunological memory when he observed that the “same man was never attacked twice.” More than two thousand years later, technological advances have allowed scientists to begin unraveling the molecular underpinnings of the phenomenon. It is now appreciated…
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Adenoviruses are common in nature and are a major cause of severe colds. During the past decade, attenuated forms of adenovirus have become increasingly utilized as experimental vaccine vectors due to their targeting of dendritic cells and ability to induce CD8 T cell responses in the majority of recipients (no other vector to date has…
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The new issue of the journal Nature has a free-access supplement on HIV/AIDS, including articles on a range of topics from immune activation to HIV/TB coinfection. Last week's issue of Science also features a special section including a series of articles on the epidemic in Eastern Europe by Jon Cohen and a review discussing prospects…
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Following up on a prior post about the link between loss of T cell responses to tuberculosis and reactivation TB disease, a new paper in the Journal of Immunology reports on the functionality of TB-specific T cell responses before and after antiretroviral treatment (ART). The study – led by Jayne S. Sutherland from the Medical…
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Last week researchers from Duke University reported that several antibodies targeting phospholipids can potently inhibit HIV replication by an indirect mechanism. Phospholipids are components of cell membranes that under certain circumstances can be targeted by antibodies; in some cases this phenomenon is associated with autoimmune disease (such as lupus) but anti-phospholipid antibodies have also been…