HIV-1 is the cause of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in humans. In 2019, there were 38 million people living with HIV, 1.7 million new infections and 690,000 deaths from HIV (WHO, 2019). Although HIV infection can be treated, there is currently no vaccine nor cure for this illness.  Moreover, approved pre-exposure and post-exposure prophylaxis regiments have variable efficacy, are expensive and have poor compliance. For these reasons, novel therapies are needed for HIV.

 

Thus, the Gillgrass lab aims to investigate novel HIV therapies using our humanized mouse model of HIV infection.