HIV

We will make neutralizing antibodies against antigenic regions of HIV recently identified in rare cases of ""natural resistance"". A key will be to produce antibodies in alpacas because of their properties of simplicity, specificity, size & stability.

Some rare individuals are resistant to HIV infection; their immune system have a phenotype called immune quiescence. We propose to induce immune quiescence in highly susceptible women by using low cost anti-inflammatory drugs to reduce HIV incidence by 30%.

torvastatin study at Makerere University College of Health Sciences to test the role of the drug on HIV-associated immune activation among suboptimal responders to antiretroviral therapy. The drug will help to improve immune recovery among HAART-treated HIV-patients in Africa.

We will develop a portable, fast device that detects HIV RNA, and thus earliest detection possible (9 days). As it can be made at $1 per test, the test can be widely implemented in developing countries. No rapid test can currently detect any RNA.

We are designing a pilot trial in Rwanda for its Gene-RADAR® platform, a portable, low cost, point-of-care diagnostic that quantifies viral load of HIV strains in under an hour; without the need for conventional lab infrastructure. This will provide life-saving treatment for people living with HIV and prevent the spread of drug-resistant strains in Africa and beyond.

In CIRCB the overall objective of the project titled ""Optimization of a novel Biomarker for point-of-care (POC) monitoring of HIV-1 infection and HIV vaccine development,"shall be to develop and assess a novel biomarker for monitoring of HIV-1 infection in limited resource settings. Affordable rapid strategies for monitoring HIV-1 infection evolution at the bedside in resource limited countries would greatly increase coverage and expedite vaccine development. Follow Chantal Biya International Reference Center for HIV/AIDS Yaounde Cameroon on Twitter @CIRCBYaounde"

We will develop an inexpensive, easy-to-use quantitative sensor that can detect and count antibodies that are diagnostic of HIV infection and progression. This technology will benefit global health by enabling everybody to monitor its disease state thus reducing transmission.

CD4 T cell counts are an essential part of monitoring the progression and treatment of HIV patients; a service that is unavailable in most resource poor regions in the world. Canadian and African researchers are partnering to test low cost point-of-care HIV monitoring devices, which are purpose-built to be rugged, reliable and cost effective.

Our project will develop an interactive didactic games-based phone application with content input by school girls that teaches adolescents about the risks of sugar daddies. These educational modules will addresses contextual factors that lead to transactional sex and HIV infection among adolescent girls in Western Kenya.

Odile Ouwe Missi Oukem of Cameroon's Centre International de Reference Chantal Biya will set up a suite of computer tools to manage and analyze biological, clinical and epidemiological data collected from African HIV-infected patients to better study HIV resistance to antiretroviral drugs.