HIV

Roozbeh Ghaffari, Patrick Beattie, Jason Rolland, and Jeff Carbeck of Diagnostics For All & MC10 Inc. in the U.S. sought to develop disposable paper-based diagnostics devices embedded with optoelectronics, allowing quantitative colorimetric analysis for HIV viral load monitoring. This platform addresses practical limitations of current image capture methodologies and eliminates the need for external readers.

Shan Wang of Stanford University in the U.S. will refine a prototype diagnostic platform which uses GMR sensors, commonly used in hard disk drives, to detect proteins labeled with magnetic nanoparticles. By employing GMR sensors on disposable "NanoLab" sticks, Wang and his team hope to produce an easy to use, ultraportable diagnostic device for rapid point-of-care HIV screening in the developing world.

Christopher Pilcher of the University of California, San Francisco in the U.S. will test the theory that HIV proteins, nucleic acids and antibodies to HIV can be detected in shafts of hair. This possible approach may provide a low-cost tool to determine the timing of HIV infection, which is essential to establish incidence rates in populations.

Alice Telesnitsky of the University of Michigan in the U.S. seeks to define and characterize HIV interactions with host RNA. The team will attempt to determine whether disrupting or mimicking essential interactions with host RNAs may lead to antiviral strategies to which HIV cannot readily develop resistance.

Marilyn Fernandez of Altor Bioscience Corporation in the U.S. will engineer single chain T cell receptors (TCR) to deliver immunotherapies to HIV-infected cells. These TCRs will be engineered to recognize known viral variants to linked to the emergence of drug-resistant HIV mutations.

A3G, protein found in human cells that inactivates several viruses including HIV, is "switched off" in proliferating T cells. Harold Smith of the University of Rochester will screen for small molecule compounds that bind to A3G in cells and turn its anti-viral activity back on.

Ron Raines of the University of Wisconsin proposes to convert a ribonuclease that rapidly degrades RNA into a zymogen, an enzyme precursor that is activated only when cleaved by an HIV protease. Because this cleaving can only occur within HIV-infected cells, the toxic activity of the ribonuclease will be unleashed only in cells in which HIV is active.

Francesco Ricci of the University of Rome, Tor Vergata in Italy and collaborator Alexis Vallee-Belisle of the University of California, Santa Barbara propose to develop molecular nanoswitches that provide a visual cue when they bind to HIV antibodies for use in a rapid (one minute) diagnostic test to detect and quantify HIV antibodies in serum samples.

Matt Cottingham of The Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom will work to engineer an adenovirus vaccine vector that includes HIV antigens as well as the immune evasion genes of cytomegalovirus (CMV). Such a vector could be used in an HIV vaccine to elicit the strong immune response typical of a CMV-vectored vaccine, but without the typical safety issues that accompany the use of CMV in vaccines.

Recent evidence suggests that HIV infection may be drastically enhanced when a specific protein found in human semen is present in fibril form. David Eisenberg of UCLA in the U.S. will design and test a small peptide that can effectively block formation of fibrils on this protein. If successful, the therapy could be administered via spray or liquid drops to inhibit transmission of HIV.