Thanks to a $24 million institutional investment from Wistar, The Wistar Institute is building a new HIV Cure and Viral Disease Center dedicated to HIV research, according to a news release.

 

Philadelphia-based Wistar is one of the top independent nonprofit institutions researching HIV, cancer, immunology and other infectious diseases. Wistar Institute’s new center aims to advance HIV cure research.

 

Luis Montaner, DVM, DPhil, will head the center. Montaner is also a principal investigator of the BEAT-HIV Delaney Collaboratory, the mission of which is to define the most effective way to combine immunotherapy regimens to cure HIV.

 

According to Wistar, the new HIV center will:

 

  • Integrate multipronged clinical, virus-fighting methods that mimic and enhance the natural strengths of the human immune system;
  • Advance successes in personalized medicine to create tailored cure strategies for individual patients and patient groups;
  • Expand international collaborations and capacity building to ensure cure-directed efforts include diverse researchers and persons living with HIV around the world.

 

Worldwide, more than 39 million people are living with HIV. Medical advances have made HIV highly treatable with antiretroviral medications, which have enabled many people living with HIV to achieve and maintain an undetectable viral load, which means they cannot transmit HIV to others. What’s more, safe and effective options for HIV prevention include pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP).

 

Despite these lifesaving advancements in HIV research, scientists worldwide continue to search for a lasting cure that doesn’t require daily medication. With support from world-renowned scientists, research experts and community leadership, the new center aims not only to find a cure for HIV but also to yield insights into the treatment of other viral infections.

 

“Wistar has always prioritized innovation and has provided leadership to advance solutions for global health priorities; this new center, in combination with efforts already underway in our Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center, positions Wistar with a unique opportunity to accelerate innovative ideas for both an HIV cure and a vaccine—both major global health priorities,” said Wistar president and CEO Dario Altieri, MD, in the news release.

 

Principal investigators at the HIV Cure and Viral Diseases Center will work toward discovering cure strategies that can be used for potential global use. The center will also recruit four to six additional investigators to combine expertise in virology and immunology.

 

“I am confident we will advance toward an HIV cure in my lifetime, and I am honored to have the privilege of leading this bold expansion of The Wistar Institute,” Montaner said in the news release. “The HIV Cure and Viral Diseases Center builds on Wistar’s history of strength in virology, our international collaborative networks and our partnerships with industry and communities of persons living with HIV. With the launch of this center, Wistar makes a clear and bold statement to the world that the time to get us to an HIV cure is now.”

 

To read more about this topic, click #Cure or read “Sharing the Hope,” POZ’s profile on Paul Edmonds, one of a few people to be cured of HIV after a stem cell transplant.