The American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) announced more than $1.2 million dollars in research grants and fellowships to combat HIV/AIDS.
"amfAR pursues a research strategy that can be described as entrepreneurial," said Jerome J. Radwin, amfAR's Chief Executive Officer. "Much of this funding supports the study of viral reservoirs, where HIV may lie dormant despite years of antiretroviral therapy. These grantees and fellows will help describe viral latency, which may be the major factor preventing the eradication of HIV. Their work stands at the vanguard of current HIV research."
HIV can sequester itself in reservoirs in the body and in some cases remains latent in long-lived immune cells, out of the reach of anti-HIV drugs, only to re-emerge later and repopulate the body with high levels of virus. The existence of viral reservoirs effectively ensures that current drug cocktails, even when they lower the virus to undetectable levels, will never cure HIV/AIDS.
"Antiretroviral therapy has changed the lives of many patients," said Dr. Jeffrey Laurence, amfAR's Senior Scientific Consultant for Programs and Director of AIDS Virus Research at Cornell University's Weill College of Medicine. "But even the best drug combinations cannot eradicate HIV from the body because of viral reservoirs. Several awardees will be looking at how HIV hides in cellular reservoirs and how we might flush the virus out of the body."
amfAR also named four fellows in basic research who will share $396,000 for guided research projects on HIV reservoirs and viral latency, microbicides, disrupted immune function, and new anti-HIV drugs.
Both amfAR grantees and fellow are selected through a rigorous process of peer review conducted by members of amfAR's Scientific Advisory Committee, a large group of highly qualified professionals who volunteer their time and expertise to evaluate proposals on the basis of scientific merit, relevance, and promise.